Dogs of Kombat
by B1ue Ange1s
Summary: "Well this sucks. I work my ass off trying to do the right thing and fight off an invasion and get killed for my troubles. Oh man not my best day, but now I'm stuck here fighting monsters with two other guys who are pretty damn scary themselves. Why, because we got to do everyone else's work for them apparently. Oh well another day another dollar. Let's make this quick!"-Kabal
1. Prologue

I do not own Mortal Kombat or Kuroinu I just have a lot of free time here in Afghanistan

**So here it is my first update in like almost a year, and holy shit I need to work on this more often, but my computer can't connect to the WiFi on the FOB so it's kind of a pain in the ass. So since my computer can't connect I'm gonna have to write everything on my phone which is kind of a pain in the ass, but hey beggars can't be choosers. So yeah this is a new story rather than an update to the others. I'll get back to them in time, but those are at my home on my desktop or on my laptop which can't connect to the internet. So this'll have to do. Sucks but yeah…..here this is.**

**Plus I played the fuck out of MK11 and good godly damn that game is so much fun. So this idea was spitballing in my mind, yeah I know another idea why don't you update the other storylines but I want to look over what I already have written, like Silver Black and Gold is almost completely done I just have it on my desktop, Fire and Fury almost done but it's on my laptop. You see where this is going…..**

**So anyway here goes nothing from a phone…..God help me.**

"Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Dark Character Speech"**

'_**Dark Character Thoughts'**_

**Prologue: Godly Intervention **

Everything was gone. Everyone, everything, hell every moment, from any and all conceivable timelines that has and will ever exist..

Well everything was gone except for two people, albeit two immortal god like beings that were there to see it all end.

The first was female with fair and flawless skin with warm, kind, but firm brown eyes and silky, perfect, black hair tied up in a royal bun with a single razor sharp royal hair pin, along with a small blue colored hair wrap to help keep all of it in place. Her attire was of a royal blue color with an elegant and graceful yet battle hardened combat attire that wrapped around her torso and seemed to flourish down her legs perfectly, which then broke apart at the shoulders and became small spiked metal pauldrons. The blue did not end there though as it continues up to her neck where it circled around to form an almost silken collar around her neck. Past her shoulders her arms had again silk royal blue sleeves and ran all the way to her fingers where they became black in color at the wrist, and also took on a more rough texture fitting for a fighter. Her legs did much the same as her arms with the legs becoming black below the knee and becoming a much harder and withered material, to adorn her feet were a pair of razor edged heels that worked more as weapons that appearance.

And speaking or weapons the woman had a rather unique but still extremely deadly set of her own in form of twin razor edged fans. They each had nine razor sharp blades placed along the fan, and all of them were more than capable to splitting a man in half of the need ever should arise. But for now she had them placed on the small of her back Out of site out of mind in her current choice of company.

Speaking of her company the woman stood next to a man who could only be described as godly in his appearance and demeanor.

He stood a head taller than her with muscles that had grown in size and tone from both years upon years of training, and literal battles of life, death, and fate.

His skin tone was like bronze, long ashen almost grey colored hair that was kept in a small pony tail, with long portions of them flowing down the sides of his head ending at his jawline, with the rest of it held against his head with a blue head band not unlike his female companion.

His attire was very different though when compared to the first as unlike her clothes his were more ceremonial in nature with pants, being long dark black and blue martial arts pants with beautiful golden dragon like ornaments on his belt line. To finish it off from said ornaments were long blue colored strings that held a pair of black dragon carved nunchucks on his hip and simple monk footwear albeit it with golden edges.

But his most prominent features were his eyes with were constantly glowing an ethereal light blue with the occasional spark being seen from them. Most unique were his plethora of dragon tattoos on his arms, chest, back, and waist all of which were huge intricate and like his eyes glowing a white ethereal whitish blue.

These were the only survivors of an entire universe being reset, a whole reality just sent back to square one.

The former Princess of Edenia, last Kahn of Outworld, and still immortal beauty Kitana.

And the man who defeated the mother of Elder gods and keeper of all time itself, and new Fire and Lightning god Lui Kang.

So what does one do when they have the power of an entire world at their finger tips? When one has literally all the time in the universe, to do whatever they want with it? They hadn't the slightest clue themselves.

They both stared at the hourglass the magical primordial construct that gave birth to time itself. It was a grand and awe inspiring site as it was almost as tall as a house with clear and beautiful architecture that showed no signs of decay despite being here since before time itself was really a thing at all.

With it time had been reset, rewound, frozen, and manipulated for eons. And now all that power fell onto them.

"It's all a bit much don't you think?" Lui Kang says jokingly says to his royal partner.

Kitana laughs at him, "The power to create an entire universe. I think you're over selling it." She fires back jokingly.

They had been here for what seemed like forever by this point, but in reality if had only been a few years ever since Kronika was defeated here and Raiden traded places with Kitana to give the new god a more permanent companion.

But even now the two of them were struggling deciding on what to do with the Hourglass. As so far they've been reviewing history, mostly history that pertains to their own realms and those that were more closely involved in the Mortal Kombat tournament. But eventually they branched out and looked at other realms that had either fallen to Outworld during conquest, or those that were long gone by the time Shao Khan began his reign.

"You've seen some of the more unique realms yes?" Kitana asks him remembering all of the realms they've seen in their relatively short time with Hourglass.

The god nods to her, "Indeed I have, I never thought that so many world would be out there aside from those who fought in the tournament. Seems strange that so many disappeared or were destroyed, do you think they were destroyed by Outworld and the Netherrealm or that perhaps Order and Chaos took their fair share?" He asked with general curiousness wondering as to just how many worlds perished even before the Dragon King.

The former princess shakes her head, "Does it really matter?"

The monk turned god shakes his head, "No I suppose it doesn't. But maybe we can help them avoid their fate. This one in particular interests me."

He turns the sands of time a few eons and shows a new smaller realm bordering the Netherworld and Chaos realms, "This realm held much potential. Fertile lands, an abundance of both human and other races, and magic that doesn't threaten their world entirely. It's a safe and stable realm, so that begs the question as to why or how this realm was destroyed?" He finishes with a questioning tone looking through its history.

Kitana observers with him and watches in curiosity as they saw kingdoms rise and fall over a few thousand years, they saw a Great War between demons and gods, and then they saw how the land became more divided splitting into two major factions.

One being to the south comprised of seven kingdoms led by a lone goddess in the form of an elf.

And the other to the north led by a great dark elf sorceress queen.

And for sometime they saw the kingdoms have mutual respect for one another, trade and good tidings for what seemed like about a millennium.

So they jumped ahead and were shocked to see the two now at total war with one another.

"What? How could things change so fast? It's only been maybe half a century in time?" Kitana asked shocked by how the realm had changed in such little time.

The two then went deeper into the past spending almost a whole five years simply studying this realm and it's now discovered thousand year war.

They saw many things similar to how Outworld had been before Kitana had been given the title of Khan. Humans vs elves, high elves vs dark elves, and all the while beast folks, halflings, and monsters of all kinds fighting. Races fighting for protection and scraps in the north before spreading to the south, the south pushing back humans taking others as slaves, which led to dark elves and monsters retaliation.

So on and so forth, this world became almost very reminiscent of a portion of their own history specifically Outworld, albeit a tamer version of Outworld. Just replace elves with Tarkatan, humans with the Osh-Tekk, and the monsters with Shao Khan and you pretty much have a world that could pass as a more fertile and colorful Outworld.

There was however a major difference in a majority of the futures that they came to see. After a war that lasts a thousand years comes a rebellion, a rebellion that puts the nail in the coffin for everyone in the world. In those futures it is the very man who defeats the Queen of the North who then almost immediately turns his back on his allies and take control of the monstrous hoard.

What he does next is something that neither immoral being thought, the man then declares himself emperor of the….Sex Empire

It became very apparent that clearly the man is insane.

But considering they watched a Hollywood action star defeat a fallen god, this really wasn't the craziest thing they've ever seen.

It was however definitely in the top five for the cruelest and most disgusting acts the two had seen. And that was considering people like Shao Khan, Shinnok, and those damn sorcers.

To do what he planned to do to that kingdom to all the people that lived there, was beyond forgiveness. Especially when it was started with betrayal, something that held no place in either of their minds.

And even though Kitana wasn't Khan for long, she sympathized with everyone that lived under her "father" or those that had to constantly fight just to survive in that world. So she already had a soft spot for these people who lived with the threat of both war and monsters looming overhead. However the rebellion that was sure to follow tipped the scale for her.

"Perhaps we can help them?" She suggested with a hopeful tone to her voice.

Lui Kang looked to her, "We can help, yes, but I have to ask how? Changing their history? We've seen their pasts and futures they are focused around this war and the rebellion that follows it. To have it change so drastically, we would have to place new figures into their history. Figures that will not be swallowed by the war and also able to resist the coming tide of monsters and mayhem that follows afterwards. Not to mention what happens after these wars end?"

Kitana knew what he meant placing figures from their realms into this one. It was better than removing figures from this worlds timeline, as even if they removed one or two figures there will always be more ready to step up to the position of power.

"Who would you send then, these people fighting for the goddess are relying on the very same people who will butcher them later? They must have those who can fight, those who can lead, and most importantly those who do not fight for their own gain." The new god say listing the qualities that the fighter will need.

Kitana thought for a moment and her companion was right. Choosing who to send would be tricky. Choose someone too brutal or power hungry and they would do more harm then good. Choose someone not willing to actually get involved and it's a wasted effort.

Kitana then shoots out a name, "What about your friend Kung Lao? Surly he should will be a force to be reckoned with, and you already trust him to do what is right?"

But the new god shakes his head, "As much as I trust Kung Lao, he is not the one for this task. He is a formidable fighter and one I would gladly have next to me in the heat of battle, but he himself admits that he is no leader. These people will need leaders to help them in this war as well as fighters."

Kitana thought for a while, "Then what of the grandmasters? Hanzo and Kuai Liang surly they would be perfect."

Lui Kang nodded and for moment thought she had hit the nail on the head and again shakes his head, "No not this time, those two have done so much for Earthrealm. It would be wrong to rob them of their peace now. Master Hasashi is finally at rest with his clan, both old and new. And Master Liang is also where he needs to be, teaching others in the afterlife, and reunited with a brother made whole."

He then widens his eyes at a thought, "However, while master Hasashi is unable to perhaps Scorpion may be able to help."

Kitana looks at him puzzled, "You mean when he was a specter? What good could that form do? He was only just fire and rage, he would sooner burn them to the ground then help."

Lui Kang though shook his head once again, "He was like that yes, but in our final battle he changed. Meeting his future self put him at ease. He knew the truth of his family's murder, but he also learned of his clan's rebirth. Master Hasashi was able to turn his past self's hardened heart into one that was willing to make peace with Sub-Zero and work with Raiden and us to save the timeline. And even in death the man was the leader of a clan and was more than willing to charge head first into an army of demons."

Kitana looked troubled by this but the more she though of it the more it could make sense, magic while not as common in this world as theirs was almost as potent. She had seen the battlefields that had been home to mage fights, and Scorpion's hellfire would be more than enough to turn the tides in most situations .

But she knew that one would not be enough, "So then Scorpion is one. Perhaps we should send more, this is war after all. And yes while it can be changed by one man, it is still difficult to win with just one."

The god nodded to her, "You are right. Who to send with him? Scorpion was allied with us in the end, but his sense of honor and rage may clash with others."

Kitana then thought of one exactly like that, but perhaps more feral, "What of Baraka. He too was our ally in the end, we made peace with him and the Tarkata clan, he values honor just as much as Scorpion does and led with a fighting spirit these people would be lucky to have."

Lui Kang nodded in agreement, "Yes Baraka is indeed a formidable warrior and a leader, but only to his people. What purpose would he have to lead those who are not his own?"

Kitana knee he was right but an idea popped into her head, "Then what if he were to lead his people again?"

She looks to the hour glass and she spins the sands to show just how devoted Baraka truly was to his clan and people. It showed just how devoted he was, serving under Shao Khan so that his people may have honor in combat. Trusting in Kitana when she was Khan, that she will make Kotal keep his promises, he was a man who fought for the betterment of his people rather than his own gain.

Even if Baraka was on the more…..aggressive side and was prone to more…violent tendencies.

He was good at heart when it came to his people. Just **very** rough around the edges.

Lui Kang sighed knowing that Kitana was right about him, while Baraka was an absolute monster on the battlefield Tarkata was and forever will be his priority.

"Very well then Baraka will accompany his own people to this world. But they will need to know that their roles as deterrents rather than conquerors." He says still skeptical of the Tarkata clan.

Kitana nods to him in agreement, "I know your concerns but I believe that Scorpion alone will be able to keep the clan in check. Or do you perhaps wish to place a third, as maybe a final barrier between the two?"

The fire god nodded at that, "Yes, while it is true they fought together at the final battle of our time they may not be the best of allies in this realm. But this adds the question of who to send that will act as a barrier between the two of them without taking sides."

Kitana goes to think, "What of another fighter from earthrealm? Scorpion is still a wraith and Baraka is still Outworld perhaps then a regular human should be best to send?"

They then begin looking through the timelines of Earth to see who they could send to fight along side the other two without this one taking sides when they all meet in the war or during the rebellion.

And for the most part every fighter from earth held clear sides as to who they'd rather fight with Raiden, Kung Lao, and past Lui Kang would most likely never fight with either, or they would side with Scorpion most likely if they knew of future events. Almost everyone from the Special Forces would most definitely fight along side Scorpion as in their eyes the wraith fought along side them during Shinnok's return as a human, while Baraka fought against Kotal in Outworld. Then on the other end members of the Black and Red Dragon fought with Outworld and would gladly fight with only Baraka and then take over.

Well all except one member, Kabal. Kabal fought with Earthrealm against both Scorpion and Baraka in Shao Khan's attack, but was unfortunately killed and then turned into a revenant. The man sought redemption for his time in Dragon clans and even became a cop before and during the Outworld invasion. And while he wasn't friends with the either of them his past as both a criminal, a police officer, and finally a revenant gave him a unique background that could perhaps let him cooperate with the other two.

"So are we in agreement?" Kitana asks picking points in time to pull the three from.

Scorpion and Baraka from moments after their battle against Kronika's final stand, and Kabal in his final moments as a living man.

"We are but perhaps one more thing could be added to them." He looked to Kabal and exchanged his old mask and equipment given to him by Kano to the more advanced model that he was given later in time. Baraka was given his people as promised. And Scorpion was given the full extent of his hellfire.

And of course all three of them were armed with knowledge, of their own realms and the outcome of the final battle, as a way of letting them know their efforts led to a final victory.

"So then now to find a point in time to drop them into." Lui Kang says looking for the best point in timeline to have them appear as to have them become established in the world and have them effectively fight against the coming storm.

And so with a final agreement between the two they placed the three of them down in separate locations.

Scorpion to the east.

Baraka to the north.

Kabal to the south.

Each of them a role to play, each of them now visitors in a new realm.

**And Done!**

**Well here it is a new story if anything I'll probably work on this one more often then not but I'm not above throwing out a chapter of something else here and there.**

**Just depends on how the rest of the deployment goes I guess, eh fuck it it'll keep my entertained between work and the gym. **

**So please Read and Review always love reading those.**

**Stay Cool **


	2. Hellfire

"Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Dark Character Speech"**

'_**Dark Character Thoughts'**_

**Chapter 1: Hellfire**

It was seemingly a normal spring day in the kingdom to the east of Ken.

The morning sun had been up for a few hours but it was still somewhat early in the day. The ground was still moist with a light due and the air itself held a small layer of fog.

People that lived there were going about their duties in a simple manor, it was after all relatively far from the main campaign of the millennium long war that had been going on to the north.

There in the center of it all stood a large city bordering a river with a single lone mountain in the center of it. This place is named Heiwana Basho and it is the capital of the Easter region of Eostia.

Now like the other regions or kingdoms this one was given a seat at the Seven Shield Alliance, but where it differs is that the kingdom itself is not ruled by its Princess Knight or rather Shrine Maiden in this case. Rather this was the only kingdom that was ruled by a council of people rather than a single totalitarian style of rule.

This council was made up of individuals that lead lives of great importance in the community. From wealthy land owners, merchants who controlled portions of the shops around the capital and traveling caravans, to powerful and hardened military leaders who had served in the war and maned the defense of the city, and of course the high priestess and also their resident Sheild Princess.

Today was to be a council meeting of sorts to discuss the outcome of the still raging war. As while the other kingdoms welcomed the use of more mercenary type groups to bolster their numbers the Eastern Kingdom was the only one to say no to this idea. But while the others sent less and less of their own people they were finally starting to see the effects of war, even with their postings being quiet a fair distance from the larger battles.

A thousand years will catch up to anyone.

And so at the top of the sole mountain was the temple that watched over the entire city, and where both the council was held and the shrine maidens and head Priestess/Princess lived.

Inside the temple the council meeting was underway with it almost being split on an issue brought to light.

"We must trust in our allies to do the right thing general, they surly have a reason to putting this much trust in a single mercenary group. Besides we've all heard of their reputation, they are most certainly impressive. So why do we not hire them as well?" Asked a well dressed and overweight man with a gold ring on almost every finger.

The general in question that he was speaking to was a man in red and white samurai armor with his helm and sword sitting next him. His sword being held in a crimson colored sheath with ivory lining and a large white bull carved into the side. His helm was of the same colors with it having a small masked portion covering the lower half of his face when wore along with with a white and long mustache.

His own appearance was tan skin, a short and trimmed goatee and mustache combo, a small graying ponytail that reached the top of his shoulders, and very stern steel grey eyes that seemed to be constantly scanning the room.

This was general Hādoai Oushi, commander of the region's offensive force and thirty year veteran of the war before a troll's axe nearly tore out his intestines. Thank the gods for enchanted armor.

The merchant on the other hand was Kanashiri Tāko he happen to be the head of the city's largest port and owner of the fish market that was ran not even a street over.

"I've told you and everyone else who has asked me this question, that while we can pay doesn't mean we should. Our warriors are some of the most elite Eostia has to offer, and our offensive force has not seen a major defeat in almost twenty years. Why would we change now and rely on those who do not know the land or those we have no control over?" He asks with a hand tightly gripping into a fist at answering again for seems like the tenth time this month.

"Surly we can request that they give us men from our land, or more experienced members to help, and as for control general these are simple mercenaries. They answer to gold, which our city has more than enough to offer."

The others watching this either began to shake their heads or nod and speak in hushed tones of agreement.

It was then that another man stood up, he too in red and white samurai armor but with a helm of no mask but large curved horns atop it. "Perhaps this could give us the chance to more properly line our defenses then? If we send the mercenaries out ahead we could reenforce our defensive positions and then reorganize our soldiers to advance along side them."

This was Atarashī Chi the new acting commander of the defensive garrison for the kingdom. He was a much younger man then most there as seen by his still black hair and more curious colored dark brown eyes.

And while the man was young almost half of Hādoai's age he was no less a skilled swordsman and tactical thinker, but he lacked the wisdom and experience that the older general had something that was made clear since the two butted heads almost every time they spoke.

The older general growled at being unsupported in this meeting but held his tongue and let the younger man speak.

"I agree that our warriors are more than enough to defend the kingdom and city, but I am not someone who wants to leave anything to chance. So perhaps brining in more manpower is required to tip some of the scales to our favor more than they already are." His piece finished he sat down.

It was then that a woman stood up and looked to the younger general, "While I agree that reenforcing our key defensive positions are important, I'm not comfortable letting all of our information go to a group that isn't even an ally kingdom, merely a lot of men fighting for glory and coin."

This was Shichiko Saseko the owner and operator of the city's largest three farming plots and a disgraced former priestess who broke her vows to the temple and then quickly ran away with a man who was to inherit a large plot of land. She then comes back with the land and enough gold to buy double the amount before once again going away to manage the land with her husband, only to come back alone a year later and with more than enough wealth to essentially buy herself a seat on the council.

This was the current power of the council whoever controlled the most land, the docks, the banks, the two generals, and of course the Shield Princess. Who had yet to speak.

She herself had been listening to both sides for almost a week ever since a messenger had come and told them that the neighboring kingdom and their capital city of Feoh had started using mercenaries as well specifically the Black Dogs who were well known for their prowess in battle.

Some say hire them and bring their own men back, but on the other end that would leave them open to something else, of what she didn't know but the magic in the air told her something was coming. She's been having a bad feeling and every now and then she's experience a chill down her spine whenever she found herself alone in her chambers.

"Kaguya-sama what do you think of all this?" Asked Tāko from looking up at her.

As the Shield Princess and ambassador to the Capital city of Ken she had a much larger voice than any other single person so it was always a fight to see who she would side with. It also helped that she herself was powerful mage, who was not afraid to use either her position or her own ability to do what she thought was best for the city. Though more often than not her intellect and patience led to great progress.

As for her appearance the head shrine maiden/priestess she had pale flawless skin and coal black hair that was somewhat on the shorter side going only to her shoulders with two small bundles going down the sides of her face held by two small white ribbons, a small assortment of bangs dangling just over her eyes atop her head was a small ceremonial headpiece of gold and silver with two strings of red hanging off the sides. Her eyes were a warm honey color that held a calm and neutral feel to them.

Her clothing consists of red and white shrine attire that had her bottom layer of red ending at just above the knee with a small white overlaying portion that ended at the ankle. Her legs for the most part were covered as well with silk but somewhat see through silk leggings. And to end it underneath all of that was white fundoshi to cover her modesty, just in case someone were to try and take a peek.

She let out a deep sigh at them looking to her when she herself was torn, "Both make good points. We will preserve our own people, but at the cost of letting the frontlines of our kingdom be controlled by men who only answer to gold. This is troubling decision, therefore I say that we use this time to look at how our allies have taken to using the Dogs. Feoh has in fact seen its men return from the frontlines, but I here from others that because of this their guards and soldiers become fat and lazy with no responsibility to hold there attention. No….I've made my decision, we will not hire the Dogs, unless our own warriors require rest. We will hire them when the winter comes so that our own may return home. No more than a winter, we will use it as a way to put these men on trial. If they pass we extend their time, if not we replace them." The Tāko and Chi looked like they wanted to protest but they knew that without her they would need to rethink their arguments, as it is a fair compromise…for now.

Everyone nodded to that decision and slowly people started to chatter amount the council chamber. So looking around Kaguya herself sits a little more straight and clears her throat.

"If there is nothing else then this council is done with the discussion of hiring the Black Dogs, what is the next point of business?" She asks with neutral tone in her voice.

The two generals look to one another and shake their heads before Oushi stood up, "There are no more military matters Kaguya-sama."

She then looks to the merchants, bankers, and landowners who all shake their heads.

She then stands up, "If that is the case then is there anything that will be need to discuss tomorrow?"

No one speaks, "Very well then this council meeting is….."

They all look at her as her voice trails off and her eyes begin to widen. Those close to her took notice and the two generals immediately had their men on high alert as the head maiden had sensed something, something terrifying from the way her eyes were.

"Sorcery…a powerful sorcerer is near." She says quietly but with a small tone of fear in her voice as she slowly began to feel the sheer amount and potency of this person's magic

The civilian side quickly led the room in a panic and made their ways out to the courtyard as fast as they could. While the guards quickly taking positions around the generals and Princess. And just as everyone got the chamber doors open to where they could get out into the open courtyard they immediately felt that something was very wrong.

It was supposed to be a pleasant spring morning, so why was everyone feeling as if they just just walked into the scorching heat of a dessert.

Kaguya snaps her eyes to the center of the yard and knows that something is about appear, "Get away from the center!" She shouts to them all.

Hearing the mage everyone heeds her warning just in the nick of time as not even a second later a massive spiraling pillar of fire emerged from the ground in front of them.

Everyone could do nothing but stare at the raging tornado of an inferno in front of them as it spun and roared into the sky. Those closest had already lost eyebrows to the blaze and yet they were somewhat too mesmerized by it to move.

Then as quickly as came it dispersed leaving only embers and small quickly dying blazes on the stone floor.

And a crouched silhouette in the center of where the inferno had been.

The figure then rose to his feet and looked to the crowd that was before him.

Dead white eyes stared out at all of them and looked between those closest and the armed guards that stared at him in fear.

The figure was tall and packed with muscle both size and tone with tanned skin and the aforementioned pure white eyes that somehow seemed to be looking into their very souls.

His clothing was definitely that of a shinobi covered head to toe with yellow, black, and red cloth along with signs of both steel and leather armor on him. His feet had the traditional sandals of her kingdom, which was a slight surprise to her, moving upward his shins with covered with steel leg guards held in place with leather straps running behind his legs and a lone piece of rope looped at the torso was a red under cloth with overlaying yellow and black crossing over each other before ending where his waist was held by a sturdy leather belt which continued to solid black and somewhat baggy pants. Although that was quickly overlooked as it also held both an excellently crafted mugai ryu and accompanying tanto that both had a yellow cloth wrap and silver colored guard.

Upward again he wore metal shoulder guards with a thick leather neck guard to both hold the steel in place and add a bit more protection. His arms were much like his legs covered in steel and held by both leather straps and a piece of rope, but the peculiar part was the dangling kunai and chain that could be seen casually hanging from his right hand.

And finally was the head which for the most part was obscured by both a solid black hood and an eerie almost skeletal looking dark yellow mask that made clear distinctions of the nose and cheek bones.

It was an almost suffocatingly tense moment between what must've been thirty armed guards, two generals, and an experienced mage. And all of them were borderline terrified of this thing in front of them.

He just appeared in probably the most powerful fire spell she had ever seen, the power flowing off of him was again suffocating to her.

He then takes a step forward and reels his kunai into his sleeve, **"You there, priestess. Where am I? What realm is this?"** He asked in a deep, angry, and unnatural voice as he walked towards her.

The civilian council members were almost clawing over themselves to get away from the monster in front of them and the guards quickly got between him and her.

He stops for a moment,** "Order your guards to stand down. Or they will suffer." **He says his hands twitching for a brief moment.

She goes to open her mouth but suddenly the man grabs his head with one hand much like he was having a headache.

The generals order their men to seize him seeing this as a prime opportunity, but he snaps back to them and fired out that kunai from his right hand and stabs one guard in the shoulder before he lashed out and whipped him into another throwing both around like rag dolls across the courtyard.

More guards appeared with their swords drawn but the dead-eyed newcomer merely cracked his neck and retracted his chain. He dodged the first over head swing and expertly blocked a second strike from another guard, he then turns back to the first and lashed out with a nasty hook kick nearly snapping the man's jaw off. The second one was dispatched with three lightning fast strikes to the torso.

Looking over the second one's shoulder the ninja leapt into the air with his fist now ablaze as he slammed into the next guard with bone shattering force knocking him out cold in a single blow.

The rest of the guards now throughly terrified circled into defensive positions around the council members and mainly Kaguya. All of them now having a nervous sweat as the man had yet to really draw his blades or use his kunai and chain again.

He looks around to all of them, the generals, and other council members, before he then locks eyes with the high priestess and before anyone could so much as breath he disappears in a fiery haze.

Only to reappear right behind her and wrap an arm around her torso. **"I don't have time for this, I want answers!" **

And like that he was gone in another fiery burst taking Kaguya with him.

Everyone else that was there stood in absolute shock for a moment, before panic quickly became the larger presence. "Put the city on high alert! All guard are to be vigilant and watch for anything wearing yellow, or signs of fire. I want that bastard found! We must secure Kaguya-sama's safety, move men get it done!" General Chi shouts with a commanding voice.

The men quickly scatter all of them going down into the city to spread and alert all the others to the new threat that had suddenly appeared and taken the high priestess.

**Elsewhere**

Kaguya felt as if the world itself moved around her as she appeared in a blaze of fire and suddenly a flash of light, and she found herself in one of of the many wild flower patches that surrounded the riverbank.

She looked next to her as the mysterious man looked around at the fields of red and orange flowers in what looked like remembrance, **'**_**This place…it reminds me of the Fire Gardens. Why does it have to look so much like home?' **_He thought somewhat sadly in his mind.

Sighing he looks to the Shrine Maiden and waits for her to stand.

She looks at him and sees what he wants and slowly stands up and straightened her maiden's attire. "Who are you?"

She asks with a stern and no nonsense attitude towards the man. Though if she were honest this one scared her to an unnatural degree. And it wasn't the fact that he was a man built for combat, his weapons, or his unbelievable amount of powerful fire magic. No it was those eyes of his, those unnatural dead eyes, that now since she's closer she can see the outlines of his iris and pupil.

The man looked at her for a moment and then spoke, **"I am Scorpion. And now I will ask again what realm and I in, and who are you?" **He asks in that deep and echoing voice.

Kaguya stares into those eyes for a moment and for a brief moment looses herself before answering, "I am Kaguya high priestess of all Eostia, member of the Seven Shield Alliance, and magical consultant to the goddess reborn herself."

Scorpion tilted his head at the answer, **"I do not know of a realm called Eostia, or any goddess other than that damned traitor Cetrion. Is it her you serve?" **He says with a more threatening undertone to his voice at the thought of one of Kronika's underlings slipping through their fingers at the final assault.

At the mere mention of an enemy the very air around Scorpion began to heat up adding new layer of small sweat beads on the Shrine Maiden's face as she thought about how to get out of this situation with being forced to fight, as she knew that it would be a fight she was completely and totally unprepared for, and completely outmatched by the ninja in front of her.

She quickly swallows her fear and shakes her head, "No I do not serve any goddess by the name of Cetrion, I've never even heard of that name before. I serve the goddess reborn Celestine Lucross, she is the queen and leader of our land, the kingdom of Eostia."

The specter hearing no deception in her voice slowly lowered his hellfire's power until it was able to be felt by the priestess.

Seeing that he was giving her a bit more space to speak continued, "I do not know of realms, as you call them, could you perhaps enlighten me so that I could better help you?" She asks wanting to know something about the man in front of her for the sake of finding something she could use against him should he go back to being hostile.

The former human narrows his eyes, **"You really don't know? Realms? Earthrealm, Outworld, the Nether? What of the Elder Gods, surly you know of the council that all lesser gods answer to." **

This made her eyes widen at the thought of a literal council of gods that all other gods answered to. Were there really beings like this? If so would Celestine benefit from learning this or perhaps speaking to them?

"No I do not know of Elder Gods, our land's legends tell of a Great War between hell and heaven that ended with many gods dead or choosing to remain in their world." She said recalling what she knew from some of Eostia's earlier history. But this was before even the Northern and Southern half's had been divided.

"**A war in the heavens, fitting I suppose. If you truly do not know then there is only one more thing I can ask." **He says before taking steps forward and he slowly leaned forward and looked the maiden directly into her soul.

"**What do you know of Mortal Kombat?" **He asks with a dead serious tone.

To which she shook her head, "I-I know nothing of this."

Hearing the fear in her voice he backed up and slowly rage began to build inside the specter.

No Elder Gods.

No Raiden.

No familiar realms.

Not even Kronika

And no possibility of the tournament.

Just where in name of all the hells was he.

And just why the hell was he here?!

Kaguya backs away from him as fire began to spread from beneath his feet as he stood there almost shaking in anger. It even got to the point where she had to put up a magical barrier in front of her and she was forced to seek shelter behind a large boulder.

Soon the grass around him began to be turned to ash and the trees withered from the sheer heat produced. Then he became a whole new kind of terrifying to the woman, if she were able to see him. His skin began to burn away, the flesh and cloth that he wore and was made of melted until all there was left was a brightly glowing orange skeleton in his place.

And then suddenly it was if the sun itself burst from him, turning everything the light touched into charred earth, burning ashes, or molten rock and glass.

She felt the heat through her sheild from behind her cover and desperately put her all into stopping the seemingly unstoppable firestorm that had burst from him as she was beginning to feel her own skin become red and burnt from this power.

And then as suddenly as it began it ended, and in that ethereal glowing wraith's place stood the same man who she spoke to no more than a moment ago.

She heard a small disruption of the air and felt slight heat at her back and suddenly he was behind her.

So slowly and with a terrified expression she turned and looked to this man who she was convinced was a monster from the fiery pits of hell itself.

"**If there truly is nothing here that I know then perhaps you can explain this realm to me?" **He more demanded then asked.

But the woman could barely stand let alone speak to him. And after what she just experienced did the only thing most people who had seen this would do.

She fainted.

'_**Elder Gods help me I'm already beginning again.' **_He sadly thought as he looked around at what was once a beautiful patch of mountain side forest, with a wonderful field of orange and red wild flowers. Now barren and burnt into oblivion, because of him.

He sighed knowing that whoever sent him here or just as to why he was here, he would most likely have to figure that out on his own. So he supposed that cooler heads needed to prevail if he were to make any kind of real progress in this new realm.

So gently scooping the woman into his arms he winced to himself as he saw the small burn marks on her arms from when she shielded herself from his explosion. So he decided that both a change of scenery and perhaps a more calm approach may be for the better.

So once again he feels the rushing sensation of teleportation and they were gone in a second.

**Back in the City**

Scorpion didn't know why he brought her back, he honestly didn't. But after learning of his new predicament he decided that perhaps it would be best to try and smooth things over with her and hopefully gain an ally in this new realm.

And that was the main thing that had been bothering him, this new realm felt…..different.

There was a strange feeling in the air, his body felt like it was back in Earthrealm but his hellfire felt as if he were back in the pits of the Netherrealm.

He then looked around and became quite aware that he had brought the two of them to what appeared to be a library of all places.

So while the specter waited in this castle he had brought her back to he decided that perhaps it would be best if he were to learn about this place on his own, at least until the maiden awoke. So he laid the woman down on a piece of furniture and began to look over some of the books that lined the shelves of the place.

And after what he assumed to be maybe an hour the woman began to wake up, or at least she was close to waking up as she was beginning to somewhat groan as she felt her magical energy return to her.

She slowly rose up off the couch a hand on her head as magical drain was quite a pain to deal with. And when she realized that she had woken up in the temple archives, she quickly looked around for the fiery ninja.

He turns the corner with a scroll in his hand, **"You're awake, good." **

The girl nervously got up to her feet and stared at him with a nervous glance then to the countless shelves of scrolls and books. "You've been reading?"

This made Scorpion nod with a bit mirth in his voice, **"I'm not completely destructive. I too can recognize a place of learning. Now then, what can you tell me of Eostia? Tell me priestess, what sort of world do I find myself in?" **

The Shield Princess looked at him shock as he placed the scroll he was reading in front of her, a scroll of Eostia's history. Perhaps she could convince him to help them, if she worded everything right that is.

So she tried to start from the beginning from how the two main factions were formed from the Seven Shield Alliance and the Dark Queen and her monster horde to all the smaller kingdoms that made up the Alliance. Then she tried her best to tell him the monsters that plagued her world.

But that got a rather questionable look from the specter, **"Monsters that care for lust rather than bloodshed? Seems strange, is there no malevolent god that creates them to kill, burn, and destroy all living beings to one day rule a barren and completely destroyed wasteland of a world where only darkness and the dead reign?" **

Kaguya looked at him wide eyed at the very casual response of what seemed like an apocalyptic type of event. "No they are simply mindless beasts who seek to find women for their never ending lust and are willing to kill any got get in there way."

Scorpion actually huffs, **"Then what of demons? Monsters from hell itself?" **

Kaguya again shakes her head, "The last Demon Lord or recorded opening of a sort of hell would be during the war of heaven. Where monsters were first given form, but I do not know if they were actually given their forms by a god or demon. Many believe that they escaped from wherever it was that they came from, and the gods simply do not see them as a threat."

Scorpion nodded kind of understanding the explanation, **"Then how are they still here? Demons in my land are mindless violent monsters that care only for battle and the blood of the living so that their souls will be added to their ranks." **

Kaguya sighed a bit knowing what she had to explain, "Monsters in this world do not replenish their numbers by killing humans, elves or any other kind of non monster. They instead….well rape every female they find until they become pregnant, then within a matter of moments to days the woman will give birth to another monster or monsters, to which they will grow and mature in a matter of again moments to hours. That is why they have such powerful lust so that they can find more and more victims to implant their seed into."

To Scorpion it sounded almost like those bugs of Outworld, but to a much more unmerciful degree. Sure the Kytinn planted eggs inside the corpses, or if you were unfortunate enough, living victims. But at least you were either already dead, or were about to die quickly, painfully but quickly. This was a new level of savages that Scorpion would not tolerate.

"**These monsters sound like truly barbaric and cruel beings. What is being done to exterminate them from your realm? Surly there must be some effort?"**

He gets a downed look from the woman, "There is a war being fought against them right now, but it has been going on for almost a thousand years. And it only seems to be going more and more bleak as the days go on. The other cities of the Alliance have even began resorting to armies of mercenaries to help combat to the threat. And now my city is looking to do the same, we must decide whether to hold our forces to the front or to pull them back to reenforce defenses for the city itself." She says with a frustrated tone to her voice at the state of affairs that she found herself in.

Scorpion sat there listening to her, mostly out of curiosity wanting to learn of this world for the most part. But hearing of war with monsters after quite literally finishing his own realm's war against monsters, revenants, and a titan. He was not happy to hear that this realm had been at war for nearly an entire millennium.

He thought about how these monster were tearing into people, men and boys slaughtered while trying to protect wives, mothers, sisters, and friends.

And then he remembered his future self. He had rebuilt his clan and had dedicated his life and efforts to protecting them, and their home.

A dedication that he gave his life for.

And then he remembered that he would be willing to do the same, for his clan and his family once before.

Scorpion had made his decision, and while he may not be ready to fully invite this woman to help him in this task, he thought she should at least know of it.

He stands up and politely places the scroll back where he found it and then came back to Kaguya and gave a slight bow, making her normally emotionless face stretch in surprise for what seemed like the hundredth time today when dealing with him. **"I apologize for doing you or your men any harm. I was confused as to what happened to me and how I came to be here, but now none of that matters. I Scorpion will be leaving you and your city in peace. For now I must leave in order to bring those who have wronged this realm to their knees." **

Kaguya begins to feel that sudden heat again and before he can fully disappear she calls out, "Wait what do you mean?! What are you talking about?! Who are you?!" She asks in rapid order to the man who stopped his teleport and then toward her.

"**I'm leaving, to kill every disgraceful excuse that calls itself a monster. I will blacken and char their bones, turn their flesh to ashes, and cut them down like the dogs they deserve to die as. I will bring vengeance to those who have been murdered or worse by these creatures, and I will not stop until every single one lies dead at my feet." **

He then looked her dead in the eye one last time, **"I am Scorpion, a spirit of fire and vengeance. Here to burn away any and all who stand against me." **

And like that he was gone.

Leaving a shaking Kaguya in the library to her thoughts,_ 'Spirit? Amazing, I do hope we meet again Scorpion.' _

**And Done **

**Ok so not too much action in this one mainly just Scorpion making a hell of an entrance and meeting more or less his connection to the rest of the Alliance. I will definitely remedy the lack of blood and violence with the next chapter and his next appearance. **

**But yeah I'm thinking about throwing in one or two more characters from MK in here later and I already have an idea as to who will be joining them, but things can change. **

**So anyway that one done and I'm going to start working on the next chapter very soon after posting this. **

**But anyway please Read and Review if you liked it or point out any mistakes I can go and correct.**

**Stay Cool**


	3. Savage Land

I do not own Mortal Kombat or Kuroinu

"Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Dark Character Speech"**

'_**Dark Character Thoughts'**_

**Chapter 2: The Land of Savages**

Northern Eostia has always been a harsh land.

Everyone knew that from the environmental challenges of swaps, desert, and a massive dark forest, to the constant threat of monster hordes ransacking your town and making off with your woman. The North has always been a rough land where only the strong survive.

And for the very few, but entrenched and fortified human settlements they were plenty strong when dealing with the usual monster threats.

The relatively decent sized city of Red Stone was by all means one of these towns.

A towering stone wall that protects them from the constant threat of a surprise attack, the fact that everyone that lives here is required to know how to fight and serve in the city guard for at least two years, and their town leader was once a knight that served under the Golden Crusaders of Ken.

They all their bases covered protection, formidable warriors, and good leadership.

This has allowed them to survive so far in this cruel and horrible world.

But every town or city needs trade and trade routes to survive. So Red Stone has to send out citizens outside of its walls to find or buy supplies and bring back what ever they can for the sake of and survival of the city.

Today just happens to be one of those days.

Walking along a dirt road next to the Dark Forest was a small convoy guarding a wagon that was traveling south for supplies and to pick up a few members of the city's guard that had been down south training with Gold Crusaders of Ken.

Among the guards for the convoy was a woman by the name of Anna, and for the first time in her life she was leaving the city's walls and seeing the rest of the world. But she also knew for the first time she was truly in a threat of real danger out here, she just hoped that she was prepared for whatever was thrown at her.

Anna was a young dark skinned beauty of a woman with chocolate brown skin, warm dark honey colored eyes, and midnight black hair that ran down to her waist when let down, but she kept held in a neat and large bun.

Her attire consists of pitch black thigh high boots, black and white lined trousers that became tucked into her boots, and two brown leather belts that held her short sword and twin daggers. Her top was an almost skin right white blouse that collared outward with a few buttons left undone giving her more than generous E-cup a little extra room to breath. She also had leather shoulder pads on her shoulders that gave her a bit of extra protection, provided straps to hold her small target shield on her back, and held one extra knife she had hidden underneath near one of the straps towards her back.

She was towards the front of the supply convoy happy enjoying the sun on her skin, but still keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of a monster lurking in the tree line.

"Hey Anna don't stray too far ahead, wouldn't want a werewolf to snag you." She hears an older woman call out as she turns to see one of her combat tutors walking next to the wagon.

This woman was Sophia and like Anna had both chocolate colored skin and black hair but that was where the similarities ended, as she was almost a good six inches taller than the younger woman and rather than letting her hair grow long she cut her hair extremely short on the sides and let her hair gain length on top and fold down the right side to about the ear. Her eyes too were different with them being coal black and gleaming with a bit more caution in them as she too scanned the tree line.

Her attire was a sleeveless black shirt cut open to allow her own chest to breath, and though she wasn't quite as gifted as Anna she still was rather proud of her own D-cups. She wore long grey pants with a sailor styled cutlass on her hip, along with a small quiver of bolts laying horizontal at the hip. She also wore iron leg and arms guards with a small dagger placed in the strap of her right arm, and she proudly carried a small crossbow which was resting in her arms like a child.

The younger woman slowed her pace and fell back with the others as they carried on, and eventually they all found themselves walking next to a small cliff that lead down to a lake at the bottom.

"So from here all the way to Ken? I've got to say even Feoh is quite the journey from here, why are there so many newbies here?" Anna says seeing a few men and woman who barely qualified to be called as such.

Sophia shook her, "The elders and that ragged old fuck are probably using this as a way to teach everyone here a thing or two about the real world. Plus if we're to relive the current ones at Ken for training with the Gold Crusaders then it's best we send them young with no bad habits."

Anna nodded to that somewhat understanding why, as everyone there that could fight had to know what they were up against. After all sparing partners can only do so much, and can't really simulate how an orc, ogre, imp, or gods forbid something bigger like a troll or minotaur.

So while it might be a somewhat sink or swim concept it was very good for anyone to actually go out and experience.

The two of them eventually grow to simply become comfortable in each other's company and they walk almost into the night with them still walking between the forest and lakeside. "So Anna, you got someone back in Red Stone?" Sophia asks out of the blue.

The younger woman looks to her tutor with a bit of friendly mirth, "Gods I wish, best I've ever had was a guy or two at the bar. Too bad I was really too drunk to remember most of it though."

Sophia smirks to her, "Well damn didn't know you were into threesomes, picking up two men at once. You must be quite the beast in bed! Bet the boys love those tits being smashed on them when you ride!" She says a little too loudly with a laugh getting some of the guys in the group to look over in shock or interest at the now blushing Anna.

"Fuck you." Was all she said back.

"Well I'm guessing you're wondering about me then since I asked you?" Sophia asks with Cheshire grin.

"No not really." Anna says quickly before trying to walk away, only to be pulled back by the taller and stronger woman.

"Now let me tell you this, you're standing next to the queen of The Pin, and I'm proud of that title. That's what I call it when I see some good looking sap in the bar or on the street. It's real simple process…" She says sounding like she was really getting heated up just thinking about it.

Anna for her part slapped her hand to her forehead, "Do I have to hear about this? Can we just walk in some peace and quiet?"

Sophia just smacked her in the back of the head, "Oh shut up for all you know I might be giving you the information you need to land a husband, or at least a good lover. But anyway I find a one in the bar or street and then I find a way to get them alone, cornering them is best but alone is key then I walk up and….."

"Orcs! From the tree line! Battle positions!" Another woman from the other side of the wagons shouts before the sound of swords being drawn, arrows being notched, and sheilds being banged on was heard from all around the wagon.

The two quickly rush over to the other side Sophia already aiming her crossbow and letting a bolt fly into the throat of an orc and watching as blood quickly began to drain from the monster's neck.

While her tutor was loading another bolt Anna had drawn her short sword and target shield and clashed with an orc who had a plywood shield and crude looking club.

The woman went low and sliced clean through his stomach earning a loud roar of agony as the beast tried to push his intestines back into place. Only to have the sword go through his back and pierce through his spleen and lung.

Anna kicked the dying orc from her sword and went to help another fighter who seems to be having trouble with a small group of three.

When she got there she leapt into the air and slammed her blade into one's ear making its eyes roll dead into its head and when she ripped it out a mixture of red and clear fluid began leaking all over the ground as it fell dead.

She then moved onto the second deflecting a swing from the monster's axe and slashing at its leg. However this one moved at the last second, but she was able to recover before her mistake was countered.

She then circled the orc and watched its footing and where the axe was. She was lucky that this one only had a weapon, bad news was that it was a two handed one meaning greater length. But every woman that fought monsters in Eostia knew, you were lucky if they killed you.

So with an almost reckless spirit she rushed the orc and used this surprise to bait out a swing from the beast. And after predicting one she closed the gap and left a good slash down the monster's back.

She heard fighting in the distance grow somewhat quiet and she knew that they may have been overwhelmed, which pushed her to to try and be quick about this.

She rushed again but mistimed the next swing and caught a bit of the handle to her side knocking her down, but she quickly recovered.

She rolled her shoulders and waited for the orc to come to her this time, and after a few brief seconds of her ragged breath driving the orc mad it rushed with its axe in one hand with the other reaching out to either grab or punch her.

So meeting the orc in the center with her own charge she smacked aside its hand and heard the distinct sound of a finger breaking from the impact. She followed up by burying her sword into its side but she was forced to retreat with her blade as its free hand came back around. And while the orc still had its guts inside still, it had a nasty stab wound that was steadily bleeding.

It looked at her again, this time angry and almost seeing red with rage. And it roared at her, bits of pieces of spit and blood flying through the air covering the dirt road in a horrible smelling liquid mix.

She saw this as her perfect opportunity and rushed again to the same side with a plan to finish spilling this thing's insides for the outside to see.

However this time the orc moved and immediately she got a face full of hand as the second one of the group had rejoined the fight.

Flying back a bit and shaking her head of some spots she looks to see the other fighter, a man who didn't look a day over twenty half ripped apart at the waist with one of his legs missing and the right side of his chest caved in with the ribs protruding.

Anna seeing that the fight just got a lot tougher, gripped one of the daggers on her belt and lobbed it into the first one's foot earning a yell of pain.

She then rushed forward and rolled past the second one who also rushed and then she sprinted forward again once her roll ended, placing her behind the first who couldn't fully turn due to the dagger in his foot.

She took advantage of this quick as she cut out the back of his leg making him drop onto his pinned leg.

But before she could go for the kill the second one came to save its brother and swung its club downward, not at her but near her with shockwave sending her onto her back as the orc came closer and began looking over her with a drooling grin as it scanned up and down her body .

She tried to swing at him when she saw a twitch under his loin cloth, but the orc moved and caught her arm. And by this time to make matters worse the second one had ripped its foot free and had joined the other and was now almost pressing up against her not caring for its two bloody legs dragging behind it, its stab wound, or the broken finger.

It knew it would heal, and it knew what it would do to her in the meantime while it healed.

Anna wanted to scream out, but held her tongue as they leaned down at her and the one at her side lapped the entirety of her face with its disgusting tongue.

But as if the gods were listening a bolt flew through the air with a seemingly harmonious whistle as it buried into the open drooling mouth of the one on top of her. It had no time to think as it's spine at the neck was shattered and it fell to the side, letting go of her sword arm.

So without any sort of hesitation, Anna with a mighty war cry buried her blade into the other's eye and took a great deal of pleasure twisting the blade inside turning the orc's already small brain into a dismantled paste.

She stood up and then ripped her sword out of its eye tried to shake off as much blood and brain as she could but her sword was now caked in orc blood.

She looked to see Sophia running over to her with her crossbow and a fair bit of blood on her, "Anna are you alright?!" She asked scared that her favorite junior had been hurt.

Anna waved her off, "I'm fine Sophia, how are the others?" She asked hoping that the others were fairing better than that first guy she saw.

Sophia shook her head, "Not good, I've been trying to help as best I can but we've already lost over half the party. Damn orcs either took the women back into the woods or killed the men. Some got away, cowards, but they'll live hopefully. We need to leave as well, les the orcs return with more." She said with anger in her voice as they could hear the screams of dying men or the arguably worse sound of women screaming in a heartbreaking mix pleading and crying from the tree line.

Anna ripped her dagger from the foot of the dead orc and glared at her tutor, "We can't just leave them! That is a fate worse than death! I will not run away I will die on my feet like I was taught to!"

Sophia turned to retort but widens her eyes and quickly tackles Anna to the ground as what looked like a net was thrown from the tree line.

And since they were pretty far that took a crazy amount of strength to do.

They stared at the forest as they looked on horror as trees were knocked down by the monster that came out.

It was big, much bigger than orcs or even ogres for that matter. While orcs always stood anywhere from six to seven feet and ogres stood at about seven to seven and a half with more muscle when compared to their slightly smaller cousins. The thing that walked toward them was just over ten feet tall and had the same muscle tone of an ogre but was much stronger. It had instead of green skin like the others it had a light dirt colored skin with a large very pronounced nose and instead of fangs it had more human like teeth. Although they were much more boxed in shape with a stupid look on its face as it scratched its giant ass.

It also stood completely naked when compared to most monsters, most likely since it didn't understand the concept of clothes, or was too stupid to realize.

They had to fight a troll, a fucking troll of all monsters. _'Damn it all, this thing can heal. We'll have to kill it quick, goddess protect us.' _

It locked its beady eyes onto the two women and let loose a stupid sounding low giggle, **"Oh human wooooman. I like human woman they make me cock feel good." **It said as the two in disgust and horror watched its probably twenty inch long member twitch and slowly rise as it stalked closer to then pulling the net over its shoulder again.

The two survivors nodded and rushed towards it with Anna ditching her shield and grabbing one of her daggers and Sophia had long since notched another bolt.

It threw the net and they split apart to go for either of its legs.

Anna got to the left leg first and went for the tendon on the back of its ankle, but was forced to dodge a swipe from one of its hands. However this left it open for a stab wound to the arm, which Anna delivered with great prejudice.

The troll yelled in pain as it got a nasty stab to the back of its arm. But it quickly ignored it as he knew it would heal. He saw the other woman going for his other leg so he swung his net arm around to try and sweep her up with it.

And unfortunately for her he was too fast with it to properly dodge. Leaving Sophia thankfully not caught in it, but still off her feet.

She then watched in horror as the troll reached for her with his free hand. So doing the only thing she could do she fired her crossbow into his finger, specifically under the nail.

The troll definitely felt that one as it screamed in a high pitches voice clutching its finger in agony as the small steel bolt had been driven deep into its flesh. Anna rushing over to help Sophia onto feet helped her avoid stepping on the net as they made their way around the monster as it was now thrashing about in a pain induced tantrum.

"Thank you." She says simply to her junior.

Anna nods to her, "We have to bring this thing down in one move, the head it has to be. My blade can't reach its heart."

The taller woman nods and loads another bolt. They watch as the troll rips the bolt from its finger using its teeth, not at all caring for the skin, flesh, and finger nail that it had just casually ripped off.

"**Ouch that fucking hurt! Now you're gonna get it, me gonna fuck you till you bleed from every hole! You gonna take me cock from sun up to sun down! And you gonna be favorite personal fuck toys!" **It shouts as it runs at them still in a frenzy.

They wait for it to get to them and when they saw it going to throw the net again they go underneath it and both attack the ankles, Anna trying to slash through its tough hide around it and Sophia firing the bolt into the tendon stumbling the monster, but not downing it.

It roars and turns on them trying step on one to hold them in place, but they move too fast and it swings again with its right arm holding the net. They dodge again but Anna nearly stumbles trying avoid it.

They go in again but the troll is ready and kicks forward nailing Sophia in the legs sending down to the ground and knocking the wind out of her. Anna goes in for the attack but the troll bring its free hand around to catch her, but he only catches a dagger to the palm.

Yelling pain again he rips out the dagger and throws it in anger into the lake. The troll runs again this time but stomps the ground she is near knocking her footing off. She tries to doge but a moment of lapse allows the troll to grab her legs and hoist her in the air.

She waits for a moment and throws her sword at the trolls face, and is disappointed at the fact that she only gets his cheek.

The troll howls in pain and anger but doesn't drop her and instead throws the woman at her tutor who was just starting to stand up and gain her bearing back. Only for Anna to knock her out completely with the impact.

Anna stands up slowly but to her horror is only able to see intertwined ropes as the troll's net finds the two of them.

"**Oh good me caught you!" **The moronic monster shouts as he dangled the two of them just out of their reach in front of him. **"Tonight's gonna be a good night, me orcs caught the rest of you women. Now we get to have fun while we eat tonight, hope you like cock for dinner." **It says with a laugh as it hangs the two behind it as they are dragged into the woods.

Anna goes for her last dagger, but one look at the unconscious Sophia and she knew that getting out of the net would only be the first problem.

So she kept it where she had it, and the hidden one in her shoulder guard, she knew they would need much more later than now. Now all they could do is wait.

**At the Monster Camp: Nighttime **

It had been a few hours since the women of the supply guard had been captured by orcs or the troll, and for the most part they, surprisingly, have not been used by the monsters yet. It was almost like they were waiting for something.

But everyone there most definitely didn't want to see what that was, so from the moment that they got the camp everyone there in all the different cages began to hatch different plans to escape.

Anna and the now conscious Sophia both sat in a cage with two other woman, all of them keeping there eyes peeled for the occasional roaming guard that would patrol between the cages.

And while both women had lost their primary weapons being their swords, daggers, and the crossbow each of them still had that last hidden knife as a last resort. To which they were trying to pick the lock on the cage.

Anna was the one trying the lock with her knife and a hair pin that one of the other women had in her hair when they were captured. She had been at this for about an hour now, but with the lock being on the other side, having to stop every time a guard came by, and her lack of lock picking skill the chances of escape were not looking good for them.

"Anna get down the guard's coming!" Sophia harshly whispered to her as Anna ripped both items out of lock and sat back in her cage.

The orc came around and leaned in getting a look at the four women in the cage together and had this unsettling grin on his face, **"You all gonna look so good with our cocks inside you. I can't wait for midnight."**

Anna bites her lip and decided that now would be the best time to….pry for information.

She leans slightly forward and slightly opens her blouse as she looks up at orc from in her knees. "And what happens at midnight?" She asks with naïve sounding voice.

The orc at the site of her was literally drooling and its eyes were bugged as it stared her up and down before a movement in its ripped brown pants told her she was going to get the info.

"**Oh midnight is when the good stuff happens, me the other orcs and boss troll get to pick a girl and we get to fuck em under the red moon. When enough of yous take our seed we get new monsters. But red moon makes them strong, stronger than us, maybe stronger than troll boss." **He said before with a great amount of effort looking and walking away.

The other women looked at her and knew that this was it. So Sophia grabbed her own knife and held it behind her forearm. She then looks to Anna with a grim expression.

"Anna do you know why every woman in Red Stone is given a knife before they leave the city?" She asks with an unreadable expression.

The younger woman shakes her head always just assuming it was for a last resort.

Sophia then motions across her throat, "It's so no monsters are born from us. I'd rather die then be knocked up by some horrific beast. I'd suggest you do the same. Don't let them get to you, it's a fate worse than death." She says with a deathly calm and quiet voice.

Anna looked to her dagger in horror, but she understood.

Deny the enemy a chance to recover their numbers, make the fight easier in the long run, save some lives later down the line. Makes sense she supposed, in morbid sort of way.

So rather than sitting there trying to pick the lock Anna just sat there wondering, how would life be back home? Would everyone know they got hit on the road? Would those training in Ken realize something was wrong? Would anyone really come?

She just kept asking those kind of questions, over and over.

Until finally midnight was almost there.

The monsters took every woman from all the cages they had in the camp and brought them all to a ceremonial area with a large stone throne where the troll was currently sitting. Around them were every single monster that was living at the camp, and it was a large one. Orcs of all sizes shapes and different degrees of hideous, imps while much smaller and most of the time pink rather than green, and of course the camp's leader the troll who stared out all of his prisoners.

"**Lookie here all these human women, ready to take our seeds. Now then we know how d'this works pick a woman and fuck till you can't fuck no more. Make her belly swell, then the red moon make next monster's stronger than ever. So then since I'm da boss, I'll pick first." **The troll then looks out amongst the crowd of horrified and at this point half naked women. And his eyes widen when he sees two very familiar women, the ones who made him hurt and bleed.

"**Bring me those two!" **He shouts pointing at Anna and Sophia.

The two look to each other and hesitated, but surprisingly it was a monster who spoke up.

"**Hey boss I thought you said we'z could only have one! Why you getting two!?" **The orc shouts in anger.

The troll though just stood up and stomped over to him, **"Because I'm the boss, and I caught the two of them. And they hurt me bad, I say one chokes on me cock and the other choke on her!" **

The troll then grabs both of them by the torsos and throws them next to his throne. **"Anyone gots a problem with that!?" **

No one spoke up.

"**Good, now boys pick you a girl." **He says as he goes back to his throne.

Only to be interrupted again, **"Hey boss there ain't enough girls for all of us!" **One orc shouts out.

The troll groans and turns with anger in his eyes, **"Then two of yous fuck one girl! It ain't hard to think!" **

Another though shouts at the leader, **"Then why you not share one of them! You have two to share your meat. But got to share a woman, you say that all monster equal that why we do this under red moon so monster grow stronger. But you want more!" **

At this point Sophia and Anna were looking at what they thought was about to be a mutiny. A stroke of luck apparently.

But then they saw something peculiar, and terrifying. More orcs came out from the wood line with more three more prisoners. Only these ones had bags over their heads.

Everything seemed to stall as the new orcs and their prisoners made their way over to the troll.

"**Boss we got a few more, but they…..different." **The orc says uneasy.

The troll now throughly possess off storms over to them, **"Why? Why is it so hard to just sit back and fuck a girl? Ok what make them different?" **

The orc then removed the sacs from their heads and they were, definitely different alright.

Although it was easy to see that they were female judging from their chests, legs, and hips. But that was about the most feminine thing about them.

They had more muscle than almost any female they had ever seen, and not tone they had more bulk, but a sort of working feminine bulk. Their skin was pale to sandy in color with cat like or reptilian slits for eyes with the surrounding eye being either yellow or orange in color. And they also had these small spikes that seemed to be sprouting out of their shoulders and arms.

But what stood out the most were their mouths, instead of being a normal human's mouth full of teeth or a monster's with occasional fang or two, their mouths were chalked full of teeth the size of knife blades. Each and every single one looked like a crude wooden arrow head.

The troll though was quite surprised, **"What the fuck is this? These ain't no human woman, they's monsters!" **

The orc though just smirked, **"No they ain't boss, they scared of us didn't even have a weapon on em. Besides they got tits and they got a cunt, what's it matter? Just make sure they mouths ain't near your junk, and you good." **

And the troll trying to test what was just said leaned down and got into one's face, and sure enough the strange female creature shirked away from him and let out a small whimper.

The troll leaned back and let out a massive laugh, **"Ah you'z right, they ain't monsters just ugly humans! Give em here! I'm gonna take one for meself." **

He goes back to his throne and lifts Sophia by her head, "**This one's all yours boys!" **It shouts throwing a cursing Sophia to its band of monsters.

Anna saw the strange creature dropped next to her and while the creature wasn't human it was clearly afraid. Almost as if she didn't know what was going on at all, and that surprised her at just how scared she looked.

The creature looked to her and quietly spoke. **"Nay rak to mah lae karak taca no suku?" **

Anna had no idea the what was just said, but she could tell just from the tone in her voice. She was terrified and had no idea why this was happening.

So Anna made a choice, she looked at her hidden knife and swore to help them. She just hoped Sophia didn't really use it on herself.

And orcs and troll came back and as the sky began to turn red they all cheered into the sky. Soon the sound of clothes being torn and woman trying to fight back was all that could be heard and Anna knew this was it.

The troll reached for the creature and at first she tried to crawl away from him, but she was already leaning again the throne. **"You don't look so pretty in the face, but that's ok I'z don't need that hole." **

It laughed that stupid, horrible, annoying laugh and then all Anna saw was red as she leapt on the troll and plunged her knife into his neck.

The troll screamed in surprise actually making all the other monsters stop whatever it was they were doing and all look over to their leader.

Anna tried to stab him again and again, but the knife was just too small, and she really couldn't hold on so she fell off.

The troll having grabbed the knife and pulled it out rubbed the few wounds it had in its meaty thick neck, all would heal but it was now worried about another woman having one.

Sophia knew they were screwed, she admitted it was noble of Anna to try and protect the new creatures that had been brought to this horrible fate, but now they were all doomed.

The creature looked to Anna with what looked like admiration in its eyes and when their eyes met Anna saw her nod to her out of respect.

All the orcs "searched" their victims and only a few found knives, but it was still more than enough to make them angry about having a blade so close to their favorite organ.

So with a renewed vigor they began to slightly more cautiously try again with the women. At least until they were again interrupted by noise from the tree line.

"**What is it now?!" **The troll shouts in rage.

Off in the distance they hear the sound of the forest being toppled over. Then came a sound that everyone recognized, a war horn. That deep echoing noise seemed to fill the whole camp with goosebumps.

And from the trees came a lone figure with a banner in his hands.

In the light of the moon and fire of the camp it looked by all standards to be large and very muscular man wearing a loose set of baggy brown trousers and a sleeveless shirt low cut to show off his impressive torso of hardened muscle. But like the females that had been brought before he was different. While his skin was the same shade as a few humans, the spikes he had lining his shoulders and arms said otherwise. And then there was the face, orange cat like eyes and mouth full of teeth that were much larger than the females. He even had a certain commanding attitude about him and screamed respect and intimidation.

He then stabbed the banner into the ground and ran towards the camp.

Then the horn was heard again, and this time it revealed he was not alone. Row upon row of identical creatures came forward, some with weapons and armor some without.

All of them running after their leader.

And things became very interesting once he had site of the orcs, imps, and the troll.

He whipped his arms and from the forearm came two blades made of what looked like bone. Each of them looked sharper than a sword and he had a savage look that screamed he was more than happy to use them.

Then with no warning or hesitation the man went to killing each and every thing that stood in his way.

The first orc was still confused as it held the woman it had under its foot with half her shirt in its off hand. And so it was totally unprepared as those bone blades gutted him from side to side.

The orc roars in pain only to then loose a leg and have the man standing above him, **"Na ral tar tarka!" **The new figure roared before he plunged his blades into each side of its chest and then casually lifted up and split the orc in two at the sides.

Now caked in blood the leader was joined by others, all of whom had either spears or arm blades, and all of them quickly going to war with the monsters of the camp. Or really it was a slaughter, they began to slaughter everything that breathed at them wrong.

She watched as an imp was speared through the stomach and in its dying moments the large battle scared and one eyed creature took a chunk out of its throat, with his teeth.

A few loud and sickening crunches were heard as he roared to the air. **"Morr brusha kaka brusha!" **

The others hearing this gained a savage grin as they began to literally take bits out of orc and imp alike. All of them cheering the same thing.

They then focus on the leader, the one who had been here first as he butchered his way through.

Two came against him and he sparked his blades together sending sparks of fire at them burning to the touch, stunning them and leaving them open. He then leapt into one and impaled the beast through the neck and guts making the orc let out a whimper or gurgle as it bled out. So to end it he removed the one from his neck and cleanly sliced the rest of its head off.

Moving to the second he tossed the headless corpse aside and rolled under it and sliced out the sides. The orc turned despite the new wounds only to be greeted with two swinging blades that took off both legs in almost surgical fashion.

The orc fell to its stumps and desperately tried to crawl away, but the leader laughed a deep sinister laugh as he stalked overhead and grabbed the orc by the throat. He then quickly impaled him through the groin and sliced from crotch to skull splitting the beast in two with all of its gory innards on display for all to see.

The leader roars as he leapt to another and impaled the orc through both shoulders, leaving its arms totally useless. The orc though didn't have long to scream as he was grabbed by the sides of his head and while the leader stood on his back began to separate the head from body with only pure muscle strength.

Tossing the head in his arms for a bit the leader laughs and tosses it to another as his underling bites off the cheek and eagerly then begins to eat the orc he had just bisected.

He then sees a small group of imps crawling along the forest floor and he sparked his blades in challenge.

The first one jumped at him with a knife, but the leader simply cut the imp in two at the chest and then quickly spun to gain momentum and cut down another two and impale the final one onto his blade. He then watched as the thing weakly began to claw at the bone blade and rapidly bleed and die in front of him.

So as a final farewell he flicked the imp off his blade and stomped its head into paste.

He spots another two orcs coming at him with actual weapons this time and laughs a truly savage laugh as he rushes to meet them.

He jumps over one and begins to pummel the first with punch after punch leaving it dazed and confused after only three solid hits. So with one partially take care of he turned and stabbed a blade through the second and growled at him before impaling him through the groin and splitting him in two from the waist.

With his attention now back on the first he grabbed the orc by the throat and punched him one last time before a blade emerged though his back spilling stomach content and blood all over the ground behind him. He was then kicked off and finished off with a quick impaling through the eye.

Soon the slaughter came to a head with each and every new comer soaked in blood and with bits and pieces of orc and imp being picked from their teeth.

They also seemed to find their female counterparts, and had a surprising amount of compassion for them as the males quickly ripped off their own clothes and armor to cover those who theirs ripped by the orcs.

All that was left was the troll, who still had Anna and the final female of theirs. The troll now having a large mace in its hands flared at them all.

**"Who the fuck are you'z all?!" We was supposed to be having a good time fucking these woman to make more monsters. But you come and kill me'z orcs and imps. Now you all die." **It shouted with total confidence as it took a few steps forward to charge a literal small army.

But with one motion the leader stopped everything with a simple raise of his hand. The others stopped in their tracks and looked at him waiting for a command.

But instead he stood locked eyes with the troll and crossed his arms and blades across his chest, **"Nay aka ratakka tahar Kombat!" **

Whatever it just said was enough to get all the other to retrace their blades and form a circle around the troll and him but still giving them a plentiful amount of space.

The troll looks around him seeing all the bloody and gore covered faces, weapons, and arms of the strange people around him, and all of the dead eyes and furious faces of the women who had been ignored by this point and had joined in and began to watch.

The troll though simply looks to the leader as he retracted his blades and stared back as if waiting for a response.

"**You don't speak like me, how me supposed to know what you said. Hell all I heard was combat." **He says with a tone while gripping his mace.

Then as if a switch had been flipped the leaders blades returned full force, **"Then you understood enough." **

He then sprinted at the troll with rage filled roar and immediately got behind the larger monster and slashed at his legs, but purposely avoiding vital points.

The troll swung around but he was waiting for that as he slammed his blade into the center knuckle and ripped open the troll's forearm letting blood, skin, flesh, and bits of bone fall from the wound.

He then kneed the troll in the groin and snapped kicked him in the same place getting the troll to drop and gag from the feeling his balls being kicked so brutally.

The leader then grabbed him by the throat with clawed hands and broke his nose with a monstrous hook, **"You stole Tarkatan women, you dared to lay you filthy hands on them! I will personally butcher you and feed them your corpse! You dared to face the Tarkata tribe and you will pay with your life!"**

He dodged the large swing by going low and stabbed the troll in his lung with one blade and through his arm with another. Pinning the larger monster to the ground the leader began to kick the injured side of his victim's chest breaking ribs and pushing bones closer and closer to his other lung, slowly choking him from the inside out.

With a final slash to his arm cutting all the way to the bone the leader leapt off his bloody opponent.

The troll throwing its whole body at the leader watched in horror as he dodged again and this time felt a foot go missing as the leader used his blades much like a scissor to lob it off completely and toss it off to the side where others began to immediately get into a fist fight over who would get to keep it.

Now on one leg and one arm the troll used its mace as a crutch and was visibly terrified of the true monster in front of him.

But the fear was more than warranted as the leader charged again with both blades poised to chop something off again, and it was right as the troll found the other leg now missing its knee cap.

Finally falling and not being able to rise the troll looked up only to be blinded by a spark to the eyes. The screams of pain were music to everyone's ears.

The leader then went to work carving up a still living being with him slashing indiscriminately on the monster's chest almost like chopping up meat for a butcher.

Then finally after what seemed like an eternity the troll's high pitched screams of pain stopped and the leader walked up to its face where its eyes were slowly recovering.

"**Let your death be a warning to all who would trifle with the Tarkata clan. May your corpse strike fear into all, as they see what our blades can do."**

He then gripped the troll's face with his clawed fingers and with a sudden and horrifying motion ripped the troll's face clean off exposing the raw flesh, bone and eyes underneath. Then it happened again only he gripped the top of the skull and pried it off exposing the large pink and grey flesh that was the troll's brain.

And with a final brutal stab the leader thrust his blade through the troll's brain and plucked the thing from its skull, and with a roaring crowd of warriors cheering him on the leader took a huge meaty bite of the brain spraying blood and tissue all over the corpse of former boss.

Anna watched in total fear with a deep rooted respect for their fighting skill, but also the brutal ways they fought and killed.

They killed caked in blood, and they loved it.

They ate like the kill was their favorite meal.

They fought like devils that escaped straight from hell.

And now those devils were looking at all the human women that had been staring on that whole time.

Anna saw the leader walk towards her an unreadable expression on his tooth filled face and she swallowed a fear she didn't know she had till now.

But before anything could happen the female she had tried to help with her knife stood in front of her. **"Baraka, takkses raak et nol." **

She says in a pleading voice making the chief who she know knew as Baraka stop and stare before his blades retracted and he looked at Anna then to all the other woman who were still staring now fearfully at the other warriors.

He grunted and then turned to them, **"Olokk dak borak." **

And like a switch had been pulled they all began to simply grunt or growl and take their own back to the woods.

But they took more than a few orcs with them or at least prices of them on spears and arm blades.

He then looked to Anna and nodded, **"She says you saved her from that last one. To fight for a member of Tarkata, you're not bad for a human. Take what you want from the camp, we've already taken our fill of meat and saved our people. You may take the others and go, you will not be harmed." **

He then simply began to walk away taking the occasional bite of the brain he still had in his hands.

"Wait!" She called out.

"**What human?!" **He responded irritated.

Anna didn't know why but she did it out of instinct and crossed her arm over her chest and heart and bowed her head at Baraka and to her surprise he merely nodded back. And left them be, picked up his war banner and continued walking away disappearing into the darkness of the nighttime forest.

Anna then simply fell to her knees, as the entirety of the day caught up to her. Sophia finally made herself known as she walked up and dropped next to her. "What fuck did we just witness?"

"Truly savage warriors." She responds with her own shock easily becoming heard in her voice.

They both knew that all of Eostia was forever to change with these new people, those between monster and man.

**And Done **

**Well hot damn I really didn't think it'd get this long. Not gonna lie I kinda just went with it at certain points and it may or may not have just dragged on for too long at times.**

**But I hope y'all enjoyed it. Well Kabal is up next and I'm going to enjoy writing that smart ass, I love his attitude in MK11, just kinda hate how they changed his story from MK9. **

**But yeah if y'all would please Read and Review it helps me out when writing this stuff and give me ideas and feedback on what y'all like or don't.**

**Stay Cool**


	4. Quick Feet

"Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Dark Character Speech"**

'_**Dark Character Thoughts' **_

**Chapter 3: Quick Feet**

'_You might be wondering what could possibly go through your head as you're about die? Is it all about that bright light at the end of the tunnel, does your life flash before your eyes, or do you get to meet a higher power? Well to tell you the truth I don't really remember much, all I saw was some skunk haired bitch curb stomping my chest. And while admittedly I had a pretty nice view from where I was laying , that shit fucking hurt. So my mind was more focused on my crushed ribs and pierced lungs rather than any light._

_Plus I met Raiden already so that counts, I guess?_

_Anyway somehow I wake up in the middle of a dirt road next to a field of sunflowers. So either heaven went broke and the golden gates are now wooden, or hell was GREATLY over exaggerated. Personally I think I'm in purgatory, I've been running for about an hour now and haven't seen a damn thing. _

_And considering I can run at Mach two on a bad day, yeah quite the thing to see.' _

It had been a week since Kabal had been transported after his death at the hands of a resurrected queen Sindel and for the most part his supposed afterlife was pretty tame. No Black or Red Dragon to fight, no other cops on the force trying to give him shit for being either a new guy or some criminal dick who got lucky, and thank God no alien invasion to deal with, that more than anything made the burned man so relieved.

He had at first ran as fast as he could shattering the sound barrier with his sprint trying to see if he could find anything. People, ruins, tech, hell a fucking scrap of pollution just to know if we was on Earthrealm or some other realm, that may or may not want him dead.

But all he's seen so far is forest, fields, a riverbed, and a small canyon. No sign of people at all, which was really beginning to piss him off.

Finally stoping after his sprint became a run then eventually a jog the burned criminal turned cop came to a stop. And finally he seems to be making progress.

On the side of the road seems to be a wagon wheel of all things, wooden, large, and it looked like something he'd seen in museums. So what the hell was it doing out here?

He walked over to it calmly and kicked it up and into his hand, _'Definitely not something you pick up at the local auto shop. Maybe I'm in Outworld, a rather surprisingly nice part? No that's pretty stupid, only things I saw there were those damned flesh pits, a couple of monsters, and that dickhead Kano.' _

He looks around again and sure enough nothing except the same country landscape he'd been running across for a couple dozen miles. Well all except a sign.

"Oh thank God. And here I thought I was gonna run forever." He says to himself walking over towards it.

He looks it up and down and like the broken wheel this sign post was old as shit, or at least it looked old by design if anything. But it still had some information that he could use at some rate.

NW: Feoh

E: Heiwana Basho

S: Ken

Three cities in three different directions, so at least he had options.

Kabal stood there staring at the three names over and over again, and he had no idea what any of them meant. Could they be at war, was one a haven for criminals, was one a total paradise or horror show, he had no idea. But he had to get somewhere eventually, him using his speed magic was definitely starting to drain him a bit. So he needed a place to rest and eat and he had to make some kind of decision.

But at least he knew that there were cities close by, somewhat. So he decided to take a shot at guessing which one he should go to. So turning around he began to stare up at the sun then to his own shadow.

He then began to try and remember all the land navigation training he got as both a field op for the Black Dragon and his SWAT training from when he was with Striker just before he got nearly burned to death by that four armed feline with a huge Fuck You attitude.

And after trying again and again he eventually found out that he was headed due south and had been the entire time, so that left Ken as his only real choice as it was closest. Plus he's been headed that way the whole time at any rate.

"Huh hope they got something I can use." He says casually but with a joking undertone.

He then continued to run but a much more casual pace a rather light job to him. To everyone else he was a purple blur of speed.

After yet another full hour of him running straight through Kabal finally began to find signs of civilization. He came out of his speed with a small boom surrounding him startling the local farmers and other folks in the small town.

They all stopped in their tracks at the sound and turned in fear to face the man that had just suddenly appeared from a purple boom of speed.

The man was tall, muscular, and tanned with neck length dark brown hair hanging to the left side of his head, skin that was severely burnt almost to the point where he resembled a walking corpse with patches of calloused muscle and flesh being partially exposed. And he was dressed very strange for someone this far down south.

He wore long tan combat pants that ended when they became tucked into his pitch black, steel toed, combat boots. His torso was covered with a black undershirt with what looked like metal plates over it with a center piece of glowing red along with some strange looking metal tubing that connected from his waist to a small cylinder on the backside of his lower back.

Over this he also had on a sleeveless tan colored jacket that he kept open. And while it looked very ragged and torn, it still held everything in place or kept it out of site when it came to the strange metal equipment. On his hands were fingerless Kevlar knuckled gloves.

Then came the stranger's head, it looked rather inhuman to those who saw it. Metal rather than skin covered his face and neck with his neck being covered by metal pieces connecting the tubing on his chest to his face. As for his actual face it was a solid steel colored mask with two small metal tubes running along the cheeks into where his mouth would be. His eyes were large and black with small red diagonal lines in the center giving him a very intimidating stare. And while everyone could see his hair coming out over his scalp they could see that this too was also slightly mangled from burns.

And finally came the two objects on his back that caught the attention of people there, twin hooked blades. Very unique weapons in Eostia, almost never seen outside the continent to the east.

So what was someone like this poor soul doing here?

"What're you all staring at?" He says with a slight voice amplifier in his mask, spooking the people near him.

He then casually makes his way to what he could only assume is the local inn and he walks through the wooden door into a room that had a large lively crowd in it. He manages to make it all the way to the bar without anyone really giving him too much trouble, surprisingly, and motions the bar tender over.

The bartender makes it over and without missing a beat goes to open his mouth only for Kabal to quickly grab him by the shirt and bring him in close.

"Trust me you don't want to cause attention. Now listen and listen well, I don't want trouble here, but I'm not above kicking everyone's ass. So just be cool, and we all go home with no broken bones. You got me?" He says lowly and quickly then let's the man go and props his elbow up on counter and begin to tap his fingers trying to think.

"I'll make this quick for both our sakes, water. You have any?" The masked man asks to the barkeep. He gets a slow nod and a frightful stare before he goes around back for a while and brings back a large jug of water from the well out back.

Kabal raises a brow behind his mask and looks at him strangely, "A bit more than I expected, but I'm not complaining. How much for that and….why the hell not a beer or two?"

The barkeep was silent and then slowly turned on the tap, "For you stranger I'm implied to say free. But I have to ask, you're not here to use those things you got, right?"

Kabal knows he was talking about his hook-swords and shakes his head, "No I'm not. Just here for a day, maybe not even that then I'm headed to Ken. Got to be some kind of work down there I can do."

The barkeep nodded at him and then began to pour him a beer from the tap and carefully slid him the beer, "Since you're not here to kill anyone, you got anything to pay me with?"

Kabal reaches into one of the many pockets pulls out some spare coins he had taken off of Kano's body when he beat him senseless in the Flesh Pits.

"Don't know if this is good enough but it's all I got?" He says dropping the coins in the barkeeps hand.

They both stared for a second before the barkeep looked at him then the coins, "Not like it makes much of difference, silver is still silver. Just take the beer and the water, people are starting to look at you." Kabal turns and glares at those looking at his back with those glowing red eyes on his mask.

He sees more than a few people looking at him but for the most part it was only a few shadier looking characters that seemed to want to start something with him.

He turns his back to grab his drink when he hears one call out, "That's right freak just turn around."

"One of you got a problem with me?" He asks out loud with a clear tone of challenge in his voice.

No one spoke up at first but then two figures in the back stood up and made their way forward. They both walked up with their hands resting on their swords by their waist, each other smirking at the masked man at the bar.

"Yeah we got a problem with you. Your ugly ass is ruining our drinks, hell you might even scare off the whores. And we're not about to sit here and let that happen, so I say we take you out show you how we take care of problems." They say with a laugh at the end.

Kabal looked them over and for the most part they looked like nothing but assholes who just thought they were tough, reminded him of too many small time assholes that tried to fuck with him. Yeah this was gonna be easy.

Kabal calmly looked to them then turned to his beer, and slowly reached up to his mask.

Everyone in the bar heard a hiss of air, and slowly Kabal set his mask on the bar.

He kept his back to the bar and only the barkeep could really see him, but judging from his reaction of going pale in the face, whatever was under the mask was not a pretty site.

He then grabs the mug of beer and with no hesitation started chugging the whole pint. He finished it all in one go and with a dramatic slam of the mug he began to put his mask back on.

"Alright lets get this over with. I've got a little beer in me and I'm feeling a little loose, I'll make this quick." He says with his mask now firmly in place.

The two smirking assholes walked out of the bar with Kabal following closely behind. But as he walked he studied them, and for the most part he could tell this wasn't their first time in a fight. They just hadn't fought someone like him, the only thing he was taking note of was the symbol they both had on their shoulder guards. A black snarling dog, probably their marker. Which means if he kills them he'd be pissing off a whole group, and he wasn't really looking into pissing off another army like he did in Outworld.

So when the three of them made it to the center of the path between the bar and a shop he stared them down, "So, we doing this with fists or blades?"

The two looked to each other then to Kabal and while they looked like they could go either way they finally took their belts off and dropped their swords on the ground next to them. "If we're gonna fight might as well beat your ass with our hands. Let the world know that these dogs got more than just a bit of bark." One says cracking his knuckles.

To Kabal that was perfectly fine, no pressure from another group trying to kill him. Just a good old fashion ass kicking. "Perfect, just so you know you Dogs are gonna be missing your bite when I'm done with you."

They then started walking towards each other at a brisk walking pace, and about halfway the two dogs rushed Kabal with what they thought was some quick footwork.

But in reality Kabal was already yawning at them.

In a flash of natural speed rather than his magic, Kabal was in the first one's guard with a brutal knee to the gut followed by an elbow to the back of the head sending the first into the dirt. The second one now in shock was completely unprepared for three rapid jabs and a cross to the cheek and jaw.

He turned to leave and grab his water but a groan made him turn around with a spinning axe kick to the chest, knocking the wind out of him and cracking a rib.

"Well that was easy." He says sarcastically to the unconscious duo.

He then casually walks back into the bar and grabs his after jug. But before he could leave the barkeep held onto it for a few extra seconds.

"What the fuck happened to you?" He asks remembering his face.

Kabal ripped the water from his hands and looked him dead in the eye, "Word of advice, you see a dragon tiger four armed muscle bound hybrid that likes to rip people in half and breath fire. Tell him to fuck off and die if you would."

The barkeep looked absolutely horrified at the thought of such a creature and slowly just let the burned man walk out the door.

'_Well I got water, a bit of beer to drink, and found out I'm not a realm of absolute monsters. Not too bad of a stop I'd say.' _He thinks somewhat optimistically in his head as he decided to walk rather than run out of the town.

And he while it was painfully slow at first Kabal began to just really not give a damn, why rush to Ken? It wasn't like he had a job to do, no one was waiting for him, and no one wanted him dead out here.

Well not yet at least, he knew damn well that he'd probably piss somebody off.

He continued his casual walk along the dirt road actually just taking his time to relax. However this really didn't last too much longer as he saw a cluster of dust clouds being kicked up in the distance.

Seeing this Kabal just started walking to the side not really wanting to deal with anyone else for the rest of today.

So just walking and keeping to himself he watched as a larger caravan of horses made their way past him each one kicking up enough dust to hide him for the most part. Which he wasn't really complaining about if anything he was gonna start running again after they passed.

But just as he thought he was clear a few of the horses stop, each of their riders looking at him great interest.

So getting ready for another fight Kabal turns and looks then over.

The first two really didn't look all that special plain brown hair and eyes and brown leather armor with some steel arm and leg bracers. What stood out though were the symbols they both had in their shoulders, a black snarling dog.

The final one stood out a bit more, he had fair skin and brown hair like the others, but he kept it more slicked back and neatly combed aside from the occasional stray hair or two. His eyes were a deep scarlet that looked to Kabal with a great amount of interest, or at least to his mask and swords. His attire was a dark green vest that he kept open revealing his lean and toned torso along with long tan trousers tucked into similar colored boots. He also had two daggers kept on his hips. And damnit he too wore that same symbol, looks he might've actually pissed off a group if they find those two still in the street.

"Well, well got to admit you're definitely the most interesting person I've seen in a long time, what's your name stranger?" The last one asks with a curious and underline sleazy tone.

Kabal couldn't help but compare him to Kano slightly, and if that was a first impression he was definitely someone he'd be hearing from again.

"Name's Kabal. Something you want?" He asks a little more irritated now.

The men all look to each other and smirk, "Yeah, there is. Those hook swords on your back, those things are pretty rare in this part of the kingdom. Also that mask of yours looks pretty valuable, one of kind I'm guessing. So how much for both?" Yeah the more he spoke the more Kabal couldn't help but compare him to his former boss in the Black Dragon, the same one he vowed to catch when he became SWAT.

"Yeah they're not for sale. Now if you would kindly fuck off and leave me alone I've got somewhere to be." He says back sharply and blunt.

At this point the three of them start to try and circle him with their horses, "Hey that's a pretty shitty attitude to have there friend. I'm just trying to make an offer, why so hostile? You're not trying hide something from us are you?"

They then all get off there horses and circle him. "It's not really like anyone to ignore the Black Dogs." He says trying to get in his face.

To this Kabal paused.

Black Dogs….Black Dragon

"Guess I found my unlucky color." He says jokingly and starting to actually laugh under his breath.

The three of them then draw their knives, "You laughing at Hicks, that man could skin you alive faster than you could blink! Show some fucking respect, we're out there of the front lines in this war! If anything we need those weapons more than you do."

Kabal blinked at that. War, war was good business. Especially now that he's looking for money again, yeah he may have had a moral turnover as in he won't go around dealing drugs, guns, information, and murder like he did when he was a Dragon. However there is a reason he blew through the police course and got permission to go straight to SWAT, he was above all things fantastic at kicking people's asses.

Something he probably about to do for free.

He twitched his hand towards his swords, ready to just cut the three of them down to ribbons when another rider came back from the town.

"Boss! The two we left in the down got the piss knocked out of them!" He says riding up to the small circle of men surrounding Kabal.

The now identified Hicks looked to him, "Ok, how?"

The guy on the horse though just pointed to Kabal, "It was him! They said some freak with a mask and two hook swords beat them when they weren't looking for no damn reason."

Hicks then turns back to Kabal. "Guess that explains why you want to leave so badly, trying to send a message or something tough guy?"

Kabal just sighed, "Fuck this."

In a flash Kabal lashed out with a kick to one's ankle, snapping the joint easily. He then followed up with a solid roundhouse to the man's face both breaking his nose and knocking him out.

Next to turned to the one behind him. He caught the man's wrist as he went in to stab him and broke it with a twist, followed up by an elbow to his throat.

Letting him drop as he began to choke Kabal turned and dodged the slash of Hicks who had drawn both his daggers. Kabal played his game for a bit dodging and blocking with his own arms, but all things have to end so with a very crisp block with his forearm Kabal snapped out with a backhand landing a clean blow to Hicks' jaw and bottom teeth.

Stunned for a moment Kabal landed two more quick jabs to his face and then a spear hand to his shoulder, stunning him and leaving him open for something flashy.

So Kabal snaps a his leg back then throws it out to gain a rotation and build some momentum. And with he was able to put some pizazz on his back kick and send Hicks flying off his feet into one of the horses.

He then looks to the last one that had just gotten off his horse and had drawn his knife, "You really want to end up like them?"

He says pointing to the unconscious bodies to the three other Dogs.

The last one slowly shakes his head and hops back on his horse to go get the others.

"Best I be leaving then." Kabal says joking before he disappears in a booming burst of speed.

He doesn't know just how long he ran, but eventually when he slowed down he could finally see what he's been running towards for since he woke up.

The capital city of Ken, finally now he can get off this damn road.

He sprints one more time using his speed magic to appear just outside the gates, but not close enough to startle the guards.

And with all the confidence in the world Kabal walked up and tried to walk through the gates, only to be stopped by the guards.

"State your business." They ask with glares at the site of his mask and weapons. Kabal kinda knowing this would happen shrugged, "I'm looking for work, the kind that involves me kicking ass and getting paid l. Know anything like that?"

The guards looked to each other then smirked, "Yeah we do. All you got to do is look for the Black Dogs, they'll take anyone that thinks they're tough enough."

Kabal sighed, "Ok, so how about this then. Anyone other than them?"

The guard laughed, "What's the matter scared of seeing a little bit of combat? Too scared of the front lines there?"

"No. They just really like me all that much. Tends to happen when kick their ass in front of everyone." He says with casual confidence.

This made the guards stop smirking and stare in disbelief, most regard the dogs as hero's in parts of Eostia for fighting the monsters on the front lines. So why and how the hell did this guy piss them off? "Alright then, say we believe you? If you're looking for work outside the Dogs their's always Lady Maia and her Rose Order."

"That sounds more like a fucking gardening service. Hell if those dogs were supposed to be something impressive I think I might as well get a contract myself, start my own company." He says not really giving a damn who heard.

The guards now glaring as this guy had not only insulted the Black Dogs but also Lady Maia. But he has also assaulted members of the former.

They glare for just a tad bit longer before Kabal eventually just asked a simple question, "So are you gonna let me through or not? Because I'm really starting to get bored here."

The guards don't budge.

"Fine, just remember I tried to play nice." He then vanishes in front of them in burst of speed whipping up a small whirlwind as he busted on through.

"Alert the city guard! We're looking for a masked man with two hook sword on his back! He's assaulted members of the Black Dogs and is here for something." One shouts to more of them inside.

Back with Kabal he had finally gained a bit of distance and found himself in the marketplace of the city. '_Ok I've got the city after me now. That's just perfect, great first impression. Can't be too hard to find someone in the capital of all places that needs a hired gun though.' _

He then walks into the best place he can think of to find work, another bar.

Once inside he noticed one thing right off the bat, the women here were definitely something else. There wasn't a woman here that had below a C-cup, if only he wasn't human charcoal. But hey money first, then comes everything else.

So he walked up to the bar and immediately got to work.

He signaled the barkeep and when he got closer he motions his hand to have him lean in close. "So tell me, what's a guy got to do get a little bit of coin in these parts. And skip the small time jobs, I'm looking for something to make some real money."

The barkeep looked at him then around the bar before looking at one table in particular, "The woman in the corner. She's got what you're looking for, just take her a beer and she'll know what you're about."

He nods to him and takes the glass of beer to the woman and now they he get a look at her, holy shit.

Pale creamy colored skin short jaw length bright red or even pink colored hair depending on the light with bright red colored eyes that were now firmly locked on Kabal with a curious nature. Her attire was consisting of an open red leotard, that allowed Kabal to get a shameless look at the woman's very generous chest, long purple leggings with small pieces of leather armor along the thighs and shins. A fur lined sleeveless outer coat that allowed a bit more freedom of movement for her arms, shin length leather boots, metal arms braces, and a small cloth headband.

But the warrior/soldier/cop in Kabal also took notice of the twin swords that rested next to her and the dagger she was flipping in her hands.

He calmly sits down and slides her the beer, "From the house."

She catches it and looks at him with a raised brow, " So what did old Charlie say to send you my way? I'm guessing you're either looking to make money or looking to collect."

Kabal smirked, "I'm not looking for anything other than paying work, and he said you're the one to talk to. Got a name?"

The woman smirks, "Maia, queen of the Mercenaries. And what do I call you?" She asks with another sip of her drink.

"Just call me Kabal." He say with an almost practiced voice and tone.

"Strange name, but alright. If you're looking for jobs, I can offer you a place In my Rose Order though that's assuming you can play well with others?" She said watching for any reaction in the masked man. She wasn't exactly too trusting of new people, and when some masked stranger walks up with swords on his back and a beer in his hand she was more than a little on edge.

He tenses up but other than that Kabal just sighs, "Yeah I can do that, or I can be your 'guy.'" He says somewhat cryptically.

"If you're here for a chance to fuck me I'll just tell you now to go to hell. And that you should probably go before I cut something off." She says with venom in her voice at the thought of some random thug thinking he could just get with her because he looked a little tuff. All while leaning ever so slightly off her dagger.

He shook his head, "As tempting as that would be, I'm sure my crisp fried ass isn't your first choice for lovers. But what I meant is that I can be someone who does things or jobs that no one else can do. I'm the guy you send when you want something done right or you have something you really want dead, for the right price."

Maia looked to his weapons then to his mask and she knew that he was most likely either completely able to back up his claims, or that he was some freak looking to die. But if he was the former they needed something like him, but right now there were a lot of questions she needed answered.

"Alright then say I'm interested in that kind of proposition? What kind of skills do you have? And why the Rose Order and not the Black Dogs?" She asks trying to probe a few answers out of the strange potential new recruit.

He tilts his head and scratches the back of it in what seemed like sheepish embarrassment, "Well to be completely honest the Dogs kinda hate me right now considering I beat the absolute shit out of a few of their members, they started it by the way. And as for skills, well you happen to be talking to the fastest man alive. And no I'm not bluffing, and it's not a joke."

Maia smirked and chuckled at him, "You know that most guys say it the other way around that they can all night long or are really slow to finish, right? But I guess you were expecting to hear that kinda joke. So let me ask you this Kabal, how're you going to prove to me that you're worth the money? Because while I make sure my guild is payed very well, we do have a reputation to maintain. You see I was a Dog myself at one point, worked under Vault for a while and got to know the ropes of being a leader. So I make sure my people are well taken care of, if they can pull their weight. And if you can actually do what you claim then that's a serious bit of gold, so I'm still a bit skeptical as to your claim."

Kabal understood where she was coming from he didn't expect her to just give him money after all. People got to pull their weight around these parts he could figure that out just by looking around this realm so far.

"Ok then, so what's it gonna take to convince you I'm your new secret weapon? Name a target and they'll be dead in two days. That good enough for you?" He says wanting to just hurry up and do it so he can start making his money again.

Maia shrugs her shoulders, "Fine if you're that eager follow me, the information is back at the guild office. From there you should be fine, and if you're as good as you claim then you got nothing to worry about."

They both then stand up from the table and Maia straps her swords back to her waist and, to Kabal's slight disappointment, zipped up the front of her leotard. They then begin to make their way out the bar and into the street, or to be more precise into the pointed ends of spears.

"Don't move scoundrel! I don't know what you're doing with Lady Maia but you're coming with us!" A guard yells at Kabal

"There something you left out isn't there?" She says in a bored expression.

Kabal just shrugs, "I may have ran past the gate guards because they annoyed me. That so wrong?"

Maia sighs and rubs her eyes, "Damn it I can already tell that you're gonna be a headache for me. Leave us be he's with me." She commands the guards and they very reluctantly lower their weapons and disperse.

They then make their way to the largest building, no scratch that castle in the whole city and no one bats an eye when Maia waved her hand and the guards simply moved and opened the door for her. They then find stair cases and wind down toward the lower levels and after what seemed like about five flights they finally reached a large open room with weapons lining the walls, a large bar, of course, in the corner with what smelled like some kind of roast in the next room, and a large wooden bulletin board that had many many sheets of paper.

Maia sees him taking it all in and clears her throat to get his attention, "Well then, this is our guild's entrance as you can tell. We've got single or group jobs on the board, kitchen and bar over there, and the armory is behind you. That's all you get know for now, everything else will be revealed after or rather if you pass a test."

Kabal looked at her kind of confused, "Wait, so let me ask this why are we doing jobs if the Dogs are literally the front lines?"

"Well the simple answer is that we don't have nearly that many members. When I was with them I held a commanding rank, but when I was made a Shield Princess I had to give all that up as to not show favoritism towards one mercenary group. So with permission for the goddess I got my own mercenary guild up and running specializing in jobs that are not just about the war effort so that it's seen as official kingdom business. Oh there will be plenty of jobs from cities and even the Dogs asking for additional manpower in protecting a town or taking out a larger horde, but we specialize in smaller more fine tuned work more often." She answers calmly and with a sort of proud but charismatic attitude that Kabal remembered Striker having in spades when they worked on the force.

"So then if we do specialized work then I'm assuming you've got something very special for me then?" He asks just wanting to know what the job was.

She goes over to the board and rips off a piece of paper. "Yeah that's right. The job is simple though, kill everything that doesn't look human, elf, or halfling. And if you run into any of the aforementioned do try to rescue them. Other than that the only reason this job has been so difficult is that the monsters you'll be facing are minotaurs. Or to be specific five of them in a roaming group that's flattened four towns about a days travel to the northeast. Think you can handle that speedy?" She asks with mirth in her voice seeing this as his now or never moment.

Kabal takes the paper and reads the details, "So let me ask this, these minotaurs do I have to rip their horns off and stab them with it, or is that some bullshit?"

Maia raises a brow at the question, "It's recommended since getting to their organs is a bitch and a half with the amount of muscle they have and their tough hides so their heads are the most vulnerable part. Reason that story came about is some hero with ridiculous strength broke his weapon so he took one of their natural ones."

"Got it go for the head, shouldn't be too difficult. These things sound slow anyway, well if that's it I'll see you in a couple hours." He says casually to her.

Maia rolls her eyes, "Didn't you hear me it's a days worth of walking there."

Kabal though just ignores her and clicks a button on the respiratory on his back and expels twin clouds of vapor from the sides of his mask. "For you maybe but you already forgot what I am."

Then he took off shattering the sound barrier from his speed right in front of her and disappeared in a blur of purple.

Maia for all her charisma and experience in the Black Dogs and her time as a Shield Princess wasn't prepared for it and got knocked off her feet by the speed magic. And after recovering from the ringing in her ears she blinked sheepishly at the spot where he once stood. And said the only thing that came to her mind.

"Holy shit."

**And Done **

**Well there is it the final intro chapter, hope y'all enjoyed it. **

**Now I'm gonna try to keep chapters on a pattern but for obvious cliff hangers I'm gonna do double ups as to keep the story flowing. **

**But anyway if you liked the chapter please Read and Review as I enjoy reading y'all's thoughts on the story.**

**Stay Cool**


	5. Speed Kills

"Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Dark Character Speech"**

'_**Dark Character Thoughts'**_

**Chapter 4: Speed Kills**

As soon as Kabal had left the castle and very quickly also the city he began to make his way northwest just like the paper had said and he was already looking forward to this job.

He hadn't had a good fight in some time, or really just a challenge for that matter. So the thought of fighting and killing not one, but five large and dangerous targets? He found himself actually excited for this kind of work.

There was however the question of his employer and how much he could trust her at face value.

From what she had been telling him Maia was a former Black Dog and was still in good relations with them, so there's a chance she might sell him out to them if they offered her more manpower. She did say that they were hurting in that department so it isn't too much of a stretch to say that she'd sacrifice one new piece to gather a large amount of pawns for her guild.

But at the same time she was a public figure from what he had heard about. She was a Shield Princess after all meaning that the whole realm looked at her and took interest in what she did or ordered, since it was essentially one of their leaders. Meaning that if she just casually threw away a promising candidate it might hurt her own group's status as a whole. Something she couldn't have if they wanted to grow at relevant rate.

So for the most part he was looking at about an even fifty fifty split, either she kept her end of the bargain, pay him, and let him into her guild so he can become a regular for her. Or she tries to turn him in to gain a favor from a larger group but the public hears about it and she looses out of other people seeking to join..

Not that anyone they send is a real chance against him, but still it's the principal behind it all.

So Kabal ran towards his general destination with thoughts of his situation still fresh in his mind he decided to focus on the job at hand.

'_So five monsters, all of them supposedly the same kind, minotaurs. I learned about these things back when I was still in school, damn who'd of thought that shit would come in handy? Shouldn't be too hard not like some of the other monster I heard about. Big, strong, but possibly slow or not that agile so it's gonna be a hit and run game. Problem is with five it's gonna be a risk staying close for too long, because if one hits me with something big I'm right and well fucked when the others catch up. Best to probably split them up, take them down one at a time and look for anyone else after I finish them.' _He says in his head thinking about how to go about the upcoming and inevitable fight.

He then sees something out of the corner of his eye and he slows down to get a better look at whatever it was.

And for the most part it looked like a small group of houses on a lake, or at least they were houses at one point. Whatever happened here turned them more into ruins if anything.

Running to the center of the small cluster of homes Kabal began to look around for any signs of his targets or clues as to lead him to what might've done this if it wasn't the group of minotaurs.

He started with the street in the center of the building cluster and began to look at the tracks on the ground. They were large and deep, meaning that something big and heavy made them. So a good start, even if it was kinda obvious.

The houses themselves looked as if they had a bulldozer run through it with huge gaping holes in the walls and everything on the inside just being tossed around without a real care in the world.

He stepped into the first house and began walking around looking at the thrown about furniture, to the broken glass, and shattered wooden pieces on the ground.

Looking around he also found a body. Male and he looked to be kinda older in age once he looked past the blood that had pooled around his body from the large open puncture wound in his chest.

Dressed in well made and brightly colored clothes he guessed that this was maybe the land owner or a merchant it this was a trade stop. Which wasn't too bad of a bet considering Ken was relatively close to where he is.

Standing up from looking at the body Kabal starts to walk around again and sees more of the same things. Destroyed interiors, smashed walls, and heavy footsteps in the dirt and mud around the property.

But only one body? Either they took everyone else or some people were able to get away from them.

He walks over to the wall of the house he was in and began to knock around listening for anything off about the walls.

He continues to knock on seemingly random parts of the wall until he hears the distinct sound of hallow space behind one of the sections.

"Bingo." He says with a smirk as he found what he was looking for.

Removing his hook swords Kabal places his curved ends of his blades into the wall and quickly swung downward hooking into the wall. He then grunts with a bit of effort and beings prying the wall open piece by piece until he saw what looked like a small hidden room leading downward.

Opening the small door and looking into the small room from his place above the floor he sees a figure slumped against the the wall on the opposite end of the room.

He quietly dropped down to the floor and looked around, large amounts of dried meat and what looked like either wine or liquor stored on a shelf to his left. And to his right he looked at the small pouches of gold with a map of Eostia hanging above it.

He continues walking forward and looks to the four empty beds that were laid out in the center of the room each with neatly made sheets and looking as if they had never actually been used.

He then found himself in front of sleeping figure that he had first seen. And as he looked a bit closer it was here that he saw it was a sleeping woman.

She looked rather young maybe early twenties at most with tanned sun-kissed skin, a bright shade of blond hair, and a rather expensive looking summer dress on her with bits of jewelry as well. So if he were to guess either daughter or wife of the corpse from upstairs.

Sighing knowing he had to wake her up to figure out what had happened here he began to gently shake her and few times. He then stood back and waited for the woman to fully wake up. Which didn't take long as soon after he watched as she began to mumble and then slowly move until her eyes began to flutter open adjusting to light in the secret room.

She then locks onto Kabal and his intimidating appearance, and promptly opens her mouth to scream.

Or at least she would've if her mouth hadn't been covered by his gloved palm.

"Please don't do that, I'm not really wanting to hear how noise echos in a tiny room like this. Now here's the rundown, I'm someone from the Rose Order her to find and kill a few monsters. You mind telling me what happened here? I'm guessing that from the damage and front prints that minotaurs were to blame for this, right?" He stares into her eyes with his own masked ones and slowly backed away giving her some much needed space.

It was deafly quiet for a few moments before the woman suddenly began to cry a steady steam of tears as she put her head in her hands leaving Kabal to just awkwardly stare at her.

"Uh ok then. So I'll take that as a yes." He says out loud making her look to him and then to his hook swords.

And without any warning she just throws herself at him still crying and desperately trying to cling to his coat, "Please save them! They took them, please save my family!"

Kabal just sighed and lazily patted her on the shoulder, "Ok, ok just take a deep breath and tell me what happened here. I'll find them and any others that they took, but I need to know where they went. So tell me what you know."

She sniveled and then weakly whimpers before slowly backing away from him and wiping away her tears. "They….They came at dusk, five of them. We could see them long before they got here, but we knew that we'd never outrun them so my father and mother tried to gather our maids and cook and try to fit all of us into this room. But, those monsters were faster than we thought. I was already in here when I heard the first crash, one had destroyed our kitchen and quickly took our cook. She was only here a month. She was so nice and so good at what she did it….it's not right, why?"

Kabal snaps his fingers, " Hey I need you to focus here. After the first one took your cook what happened after that?"

She nods and takes a deep breath, "After they took her two more attacked the main house where my family was trying to shuffle to our hidden room, but they were knocked away from the one that crashed into our home. I don't know much about what happened after that, one of the maids closed me in here when she realized they were already in the house. I…I could hear them screaming as they were taken, I don't how long I just sat here waiting for this to all just be a bad dream. I think it's already been over a day since that happened." She says before finally just sinking to the floor.

"They're gone. Why? Why us we always were safe, we didn't do anything to anyone?" She says becoming more delirious.

Kabal walks up to her then pats her on the shoulder with his gloves hand, "It doesn't matter why. You'll never know why, all you can do now is figure out how you're gonna fix this." He says with a more tired but wise tone.

"Besides that's why I'm here. To kill monsters and get everyone back, well at least that's what the job is. So do you remember where they came from, so I can give them a proper ass kicking." He finishes with a more snarky tone to try and distance himself from that more tender moment.

The woman looks at him a sort of mesmerized expression as she looked into his masked eyes. She slowly then stood up and turned her body to face one of the walls trying to recall. "They came from the mountains to the north, we know because the first thing we saw of them were the dust trails they kicked up when running here."

Kabal nods now having another lead to the target's location turned to leave but the woman grabbed ahold of his jacket, "Wait, my family if you see them I have a father, mother, and older sister I know you already said that you were going to rescue them, but please bring them back to me. I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I lost them. And our maids, they're my friends I know it may sound selfish, but when you rescue them can you bring them here. So I know they're safe, please sir?"

Kabal looked to her then he remembered the corpse outside and knew that she'd already lost a father, but a part of him kept quiet and didn't tell her that. "Yeah I can do that. After I'm done with the monsters everyone from here will be brought back. But you should know that the houses above us are all pretty busted up, not really a place you'd want to come back to."

She doesn't say anything to him after hearing that but Kabal continues, "That being said you'd probably have luck in Ken or whatever town is nearby. Just being honest here, this place isn't too safe for anyone now."

She hears this and nods to him with small smile and a stare. And while Kabal isn't sure she even acknowledged what he said he'd burn this bridge when he comes to it, for now he's heading north.

He walks towards the entrance to the small hidden room and climbs the small ladder that was there to make his way back to the outside world. But before he was fully out he took one last glance at the woman who had a hopeful look on her face as she watched him leave.

And for the life of him Kabal just couldn't resist smiling under his mask, _'Maybe being a cop did rub off a bit. Can't say I'd make a promise like that as a Dragon member.' _

Once out onto the surface of the outside world Kabal faced north and knew his next stop. But a part of him knew there was something else he could do here. And then he remembered the body of what he now knew was the girl's father.

He looked over and paused seeing the expression on his face and the gaping hole in his chest that had dried and semi fresh blood pooled around his corpse.

'_Yeah the cop in me is still alive, can't just leave him like that.' _Kabal goes over to a window and rips off the curtain and then lowers himself to the man's level and began to drape the cloth over his body and he calmly just stood and stared at the corpse.

"For what's its worth, I hope you're at peace. Can't say I was a family man, but I guess I can see the perks. And don't worry about the others, I'll get them back. A job's a job after all." He says with an odd mixture of both mirth and actual sympathy towards the corpse or maybe it was more for the girl in the secret room. Either way after saying his piece he sped off heading north.

**Later**

As he continues to run Kabal found more and more evidence of the minotaur's presence in the area. From crushed trees and beaten up roads, to what looked like a wrecked wagon, and destroyed equipment scattered about.

Then finally he came to what seemed like the end of the forest and the beginning of a mountain range.

Scanning around he made his way up to the top of the nearest peak, _'Well I'm getting close that's for sure. Just have to narrow it down a little further and I should be right on top of them.' _

He stays there for a few more moments before he hears the sound of heavy footsteps on the other side of the mountain. Speeding over to the sounds he finds tracks and what looked like drag makes leading into a large open cave in the base of the rock.

"When I said right on top I didn't mean literally." He says to himself before carefully beginning to walk inside.

It was here that he noticed the sunlight began to fade extremely quickly after only a few minutes of walking forcing him to reach up and press a small adjustment piece of the side of his mask. And with the press of a button the whole world lit up in a bright shade of green.

'_As much as I call Kano a bastard, he was definitely a resourceful and clever one. Seems he really thought a lot when he made this stuff, guess he really was desperate for old blood to come back?' _Kabal shakes his head at the thought, not like it mattered now at any rate.

He continued his way deeper still when he heard low and grunted breathing coming from a space up ahead.

Turning the corner he quickly deactivated his night vision as it was an open area with a massive open roof allowing plenty of sunlight into the area, however it wasn't exactly a pretty site.

He looked out and saw in one corner were three of the five minotaurs sleeping on beds of rocks and leaves with what looked like small collections of bones next to each of their beds.

To the center stood the fourth one who had their head down into a small pool of water drinking away without a care in the world. And finally off the side Kabal could only see shadows, but those shadows painted a grim tale.

It was the final one and it looked as if it were pinning something beneath its massive body and viciously thrusting its hips down on to it. All the while Kabal could hear the rough grunts of the monster as well as small whimpers and muffled screams of the poor soul beneath it.

Kabal clenched his knuckles in preparation and reached back his respirator, and turned the valve allowing him to take a much larger breath than usual. Breathing deep and long Kabal had a new fire in his as he readied to fight.

He then slowly grabbed the hook swords from his back and began to carefully and quietly stalk up to the monster in the center of the cavern still drinking water.

And after getting closer Kabal was able to get a much better look at the creatures he'd been hunting.

The minotaur was big, very big he'd guess at least anywhere from eight to ten feet tall with huge bulking muscles along its entire body along with thick brown fur around its torso mostly the chest. It wore nothing resembling clothes to speak of and the head was huge like the rest of its body with side facing eyes and giant curved horns that came out and around the creatures head ending with both points facing forward.

Aside from that they looked as if a cow just decided to stand up, take some steroids, and become a monster. Not really too much to say besides that.

But he knew the dangers now, strong frame and dense muscles meant powerful blows from the fists and hoofed feet and a thick strong neck and shoulders meant grabbing the bull by the horns was a guaranteed death trap.

Kabal kept looking at it from a distance trying to find more vulnerable spots and so far all he had to go on was the neck and face since most of its organs were no doubt well protected by its muscle and hide. He could get to them with enough cuts, but that took time and that meant he had to slow down.

Slowing down leaves him open.

And an opening meant him learning just how strong they are first hand.

So with a plan set for his attack Kabal felt his legs tighten and his blades tense as he used his speed to appear to the side of the monster.

The burst of speed resonating with a small boom and a loud swish of air immediately alerted the minotaur to the new presence, and it turned to him to try and knock him away. But it just received two deadly hooked blades into the side of its neck from the attempt.

Roaring in pain the monster wakes the others and gets the final one to leave its victim as they rush to aid their brother.

Meanwhile the one being attacked began to thrash about trying to grab the burned man, but Kabal had twisted his body and began cutting into the monsters meaty neck as he swung himself on its back.

With a grunt of effort Kabal began digging the hooks deeper into the muscle as the blades cut through and eventually became hooked into bone. The monster beneath him roared again with what almost sounded like choking as it claws at its own throat.

"If only that Texas prick could see me now! I got myself a monster sized rodeo in here!" Kabal shouts in a taunt to the beast before he bends down to give another heave of strength severing the monster's trachea and splintering bone as the swords ripped out through the sides.

Kabal then leaps off and watches as the rapidly dying monster turns and with a desperate last effort swung at him with its massive fist. But unluckily for it Kabal simply dodged it and followed up by putting his hook through the beast's cheek and ripping a good portion of its face off, speeding up the bleeding.

He then turned and sent both blades spinning across the ground at the monster's feet. And the dying beast had no time to react as the two spinning blades reached its legs and began ripping the flesh clean off the bone and slicing through everything else but said bone.

The beast fell to its hands and knees with huge crash landing in front of the man who's blades had returned to him. The once mighty beast now didn't even have enough strength to lift its head to look at him, rather if just moved it's eyes and saw the masked face of its killer.

And for the most part Kabal really didn't care how this thing saw him, but he did see fear in its eyes. Good he can work with fear.

And he smiled at the site, as the monster finally collapsed into a heap on the ground letting out it last few breaths.

Kabal then just stepped on the corpse of the now dead monster as the other four made their way to him each snarling and roaring with rage at the death.

"Well that was interesting. Let's hope you all go down just as quick. Otherwise I'll get bored over here. Now let's see what you're made of!" He yells as a battle cry and twirl of his bloody blades for emphasis.

He then used his magic to instantly gain forward momentum and appear at the legs of the lone monster that had come from the other side. And was already in position to strike as he lashed out with a duel bladed slash to the beast's calf, cutting clean and deep.

The minotaur let out a roar in agony at the two new wounds and immediately tried to swipe at the smaller target. Kabal though easily avoided the swipe and the next attempt to kill him being a hammer fist from the same one. He did though take notice of the cracks in the rock from where the fist impacted.

He then moves around and hooks one sword into the back of the beast and pulled on his magic to pick up momentum and swing himself atop the beast hooking into its back. Leaving it screaming in agony.

Though he was forced abandon his attack as the others had run up to him and were all in the motion of either grabbing him or trying to swat him off their comrade.

So seeing this as a good time to book it Kabal kicks off the horn of his victim and easily slides the blade out of its back by straightening it. But he wasn't giving up the attack just yet and spun around to connect his blades together and with their extended reach he was able to cleanly slice out one's eye.

Hearing another roar of pain Kabal decided to wear them down a bit and ran backwards to gain distance. He then felt his magic flow into his blades and he launched them with instant terminal velocity like spinning cyclones of pain and death.

They soared through the air before connecting with the closest one's back cutting into muscle and almost to bone leaving large grinding slashes in the center of its back.

The four monsters then all roar with rage as they drop to all fours and charge at him with relentless pace.

Kabal though just decided to humor them and stood still for a time till they got no less than an arms length away.

With a horn closing in he used his magic and sped around them, leaving the monsters to skid and claw themselves to stop and find their target. But he had already appeared beside them and slashed into the hoofed foot of the last one, that one being his initial target. So now with one crippled from a cut calf and ankle Kabal dashed away, taking what he could get in the small window.

"Come on now, I thought this was supposed to be big game here? I feel more like a butcher than a fighter at this point." He says with a cruel laugh at the struggling monster and it's half blind and bloody brothers.

The sole monster left uninjured at this point decided to try for something different when attacking the masked man and gripped onto a large stalagmite. And with a loud roar or effort ripped the rock out of the ground and held it like a spear.

Kabal sees this and rather than fear or worry smirks at the challenge, he had an idea for this one.

The monster again roses in rage as it hurls the spear through the air and toward the burned man. But Kabal runs along side it and uses it as a base to launch himself in the air and allow him to throw his two swords once again both aiming for the spear thrower.

And like homing rockets they connect one into its chest the other its face. The one to the chest grinding his muscle to bloody ribbons and it's fur was sliced through with ease, but it didn't make it to any of the vital organs. It was though held in place rather than returning to its weirder. As for the head level blade it sliced through the monster's nose and cheek leaving it screaming in pain as it's face was cut to bloody chunks.

Landing on the ground Kabal speeds to his victim and leaps up to its chest and uses his own blade to launch up into the air and to the ceiling of the cave, bringing his weapon back to him with magic.

He then found what he was looking for, stalactites.

And with two mighty kicks and two thrown blades Kabal watched as the ceiling bound block of calcium began to fall straight toward the still thrashing monster below.

Flipping backwards and kicking of another rock Kabal lands near the water pool with a roll. And using his magic stopped all momentum so he could watch his little idea unfold.

The falling rock fell right into the beast's shoulder impaling it through and emerging from the hip. Kabal grinned as the thing's cries of pain became gargles of blood as its organs were all but crushed in its chest, or leaking onto the floor.

"Two down, three to go. And I'm not slowing down yet." He says with a casual crack of his knuckles before speeding towards them.

He goes for the monster missing an eye first knowing that the first one had to crawl everywhere since his legs were both injured. And the other one while it had two huge open wounds, they weren't lethal levels of blood loss at least not yet.

So moving into the monster's blind spot Kabal connects his swords and swings them in a wide upward arch cutting deep into minotaur's chest and arm pit with the dagger like end to his blade.

Kabal then moved to its front when the inevitable blind swing came from its close arm. And with a prediction as to where the blow will land Kabal swung again with a blade in each hand and was able to completely remove the monster's own.

However Kabal didn't have time to celebrate the dismemberment as the other two had caught up. Forcing him to weave between high blows from the standing monster and attacks from below by the minotaur that had been forced to crawl at him.

Smirking under his mask at the attempts to harm him he dodges the two attempts, not even using his speed magic and then lands a brutal back kick to the crawling one's jaw. Landing after the kick he laughed at their struggle, "Come on you overgrown bovines, you're moving way to slow. Can't even touch me."

He then vanishes and appears next to the mostly uninjured one with the gashes in its back. He cuts out the ankles of the monster and then hooks the blades into its shoulders.

Kabal then flips over the monster and lands in front of it pulling his hooks deeper into the muscle and out the tops of its massive deltoids.

The monster already on its knees from the its wounds before could do nothing but support itself with its hands as Kabal put constant weight into the hooks holding it in place.

He then looks to the other two who are now seeing absolute red with rage at the mere thought of him. And flashes his eyes red, just to emphasize a point.

And it was definitely made as the only standing monster lowered its head and charged. It had abandoned what little reason it had for the sole purpose of killing the human in front of it. It wanted nothing more than to kill the pest that had killed two of its kind already.

And looking back Kabal knew that too, and smiled under his mask again.

He then back flipped onto the other monster's shoulders and ripped his blades free, and enjoyed the view.

The sprinting monster didn't even slow down as it rammed one of its long curved horns straight through the other's chest with no resistance whatsoever.

A weak whimper was heard by one as it hung limp on its own brother's horn dying from its wounds in a matter of moments.

But Kabal wasn't going to waste a golden opportunity like this though and slid down the corps and grabbed hold of the living one's horns at maximum velocity and with both his speed, mass, and the dead weight of its dead sibling the living monster could do nothing but roar as it was slammed head first into the ground with its brother's weight holding it in place.

Kabal now seeing that two were taken care of turns to final one crawling toward them.

"Yeah this is just sad at this point. Crawling at me? I'm doing you a favor putting you down." He then appears on top of its shoulders just like the first and hooks deep into the neck muscle.

"Only seems fitting to end the fight the way it began." He chuckles before pulling upward digging through and ripping its muscle out and exposing its more vital areas. Jumping in front of it Kabal just casually slashed twice and severs both trachea and carotid. He then watches with a blank bored expression as the monster bled out. It didn't even have enough will to whimper or groan, it just laid there and died.

Kabal shakes his head and then turns to the last living one, "Now what to do with you? Can't leave you alive you'd find a way out, I mean you're bound to figure it out once that hand stops hurting." He says while staring down the outstretched and only good hand it had left.

The minotaur would rather reach for him then push the corpse off its horn and be free.

The man could shake his head at the things stupidity or just plain stubbornness, either way time to to finish this thing.

Kabal walks to its side and lines up a clear shot to its neck and lets one of his blades fly into the flesh and bone, cutting deep into the side. He repeats the same thing on he other side and then finally jumps above the monster and tosses both blades into the the front having them slam deep into the remaining bone and cartilage, with the handles, ends, and guards facing up.

Then using a small part of his magic and natural gravity Kabal drops landing onto the curved portions of his guards. And the result of it was instant, cleanly slicing through the rest of the monster's neck Kabal kicks up the blades and calmly puts them on his back.

He then picks up the severed head and stares into its sole remaining eye.

"Well that was the hard part done. Now just to find the girls." He then looks over to where one had come from, the darker corner of the cave where it had been just before he got here.

He calmly walks over and rounds the corner to be met with a site that actually had him a bit stunned.

In his years as a criminal doing all kinds of the worst things that you could think of a human being doing. Drug trafficking, gun running, blackmail, murder, organized hits, hell even making deals just to kill people at the table.

And though it wasn't as all long his time as a cop being on the other end, junkies, grieving families, and victims of all kinds.

This was something new to him.

Women in cages, some them looking malnourished and sick to the point of no coming back. Some looked terrified of his shadow and began crying and crawling back towards the cage walls. Worst of it all are the ones that looked at him like he was a piece of meat, like rabid dogs looking at a bone.

Then he saw one poor soul in the center of the room. He made his way too her and was stopped in his tracks when he got close.

First thing he noticed was that the woman was stark naked. Not the first time he'd seen a woman bare, or even one this attractive before considering the woman looked like one of those super models, and he's been with a few of those.

Second thing and the more disturbing thing he noticed was that she had been raped, brutally, if the state of her crotch and bloated stomach was any guess. By what he could only guess was the minotaur that had been back here. He really didn't want to look too long but hell just the smell of it was bothering him even through his mask. So it was pretty damn hard to ignore.

Leaning down next to her he saw her twitching in what he guessed was cold, so he looked to the side and noticed the assortment of discarded and shredded clothes. He quickly ran over and grabbed what looked like a cloak and approached her and sat her to cover her.

He then waited for her to calm down and looked back over to the other cages of women who are either crying in the corners or leaning against the bars drooling at the site of him.

"What the fuck is wrong with them?" He asks out loud getting the woman next to him to turn towards the voice.

Time seemed to stop for a moment before the woman smiled at him and began to get closer him.

He noticed this and immediately was on guard, something wasn't right.

"Hey you ok? I'm here to get you out of here, those things are dead, it's gonna be ok." He says in a calm but firm voice trying to break through to the woman.

And like a switch was flipped she just throws herself on him, "Oh my rescuer has come to take me away, thank the goddess. Now I can live in a house as his mistress, fucking him everyday."

That part caught him off guard, "What? I'm sorry but what, like what the fuck? Did, no what?" He stammers completely lost as to what just came out of her mouth.

"Oh so not a mistress, then perhaps your slave? Do you like it rough? Or are you one who likes to be on bottom, I can do both. I can be anything you want me to be." She says now dropping and cloak and trying to grind her body against his.

Though she quickly fell backwards when there suddenly wasn't anything to support her.

She turns to see Kabal and his red glowing eyes narrowed dangerously at her. "Listen bitch, I'm not here to find a mistress or a slave, or a whatever the hell else you can think of! I came here to kill monsters and bring you all home."

She doesn't seem to get the message and just giggles, "Oh you're funny. I like that in a man, I like laughing almost as much as I love cumming." She says with a sultry tone at the end as she crawled towards him with an agonizingly slow pace, all the while swaying her hips and chest.

Kabal though was not in the mood for anything like that.

"You know what, fuck this. I promised to bring you home, but I don't know if you're with Ken or one of the lake people. And now I don't care, because while I promised to bring home those who had been kidnapped, that doesn't mean all of you. I could just kill you here and say to died from wounds." He says with a deadly tone change, as he puts her head into one of his hooks.

The woman seeing and hearing the change in tone looks into those killer unflinching masked eyes then swallows the lump in her throat and feels, really feels the blade around her neck. It was sharp, razor sharp and it smelled of blood, and was covered in fur and gore all of which she knew came from the monsters that had been using her and the other women in the cages. Day in and day out.

She slowly regains her senses from all the feelings around her and the suffocating feeling of potential death that the man in front of her promised.

She then locks eyes with him again and still sees those uncaring unflinching red eyes. And she begins to shake under their gaze, "P-Please."

Kabal snorts at her tone, "Looks like somebody's thinking straight again. Now how about we try this again. I already killed everything not human in this place, and now I'm here to rescue everyone that is. So if you could get the others and make sure I don't have to do this with them then that would be great."

He then takes and the blade away and she drops to her back breathing so fast she was almost to the point of passing out and tears began to pour out of her eyes as the memories of what they did to her and the others caught up. She then goes back to the cloak and drapes it over her and looks to the masked man that had saved them.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me." She says trying to apologize in a dignified manner to the man.

"Look I know being here is probably the worst thing to ever happen to you, I get that been through some pretty life changing stuff myself here recently. That being said we need to move, this many people at night with only me to protect them all? Yeah that's a bad idea. So if you would help me get them all under control so we can get out of here. Otherwise I'm leaving some of you behind." He says annoyed but she wasn't crazy at least.

She turns to look at the others and sees the look in their eyes, "It was those monsters. They did this to them." She says with bitter anger in her voice.

Kabal though just shrugs, "Ok I figured that part out. So how the hell do I stop them from tying to rip my clothes off?"

She looks to them and thinks, "It's a curse it leaves them in a crazed pleasure filled state. It happens when monsters or servants of the dark…when they force pleasure onto or into a victim. From there it leaves them desperate for that kind of pleasure again, and they will do **it** with anything that they believe with give them that pleasure again."

Kabal tilted his head, "So what rape and sex are like drugs in this place? Jeez that's some weird shit right there, like a bunch of junkies looking for their next fix. Well then only question I got left is how to fix it?" He asks wondering.

The woman just looks around to all of them then to him, "I don't know. I've heard of healers in Ken and Feoh at the church being able to heal those affected by the monsters. But other than that I don't know." She says with a hopeless expression.

"Well then why're you better? All I did was threaten to kill you and suddenly you're better, got to be something to do with that?" Kabal says just throwing out ideas so they could get moving.

She just stare at him blank not knowing what to do, "I don't know, when I looked at you all I could think was fear. Fear of death of knowing that you were able to kill those minotaurs it must've snapped me out of the curse?"

Kabal grunted still very skeptical, but he was running out of options. "Alright, well here's goes nothing."

He then disappeared in a burst of speed and the sound of metal striking metal could be heard multiple times as all the locks on the cages were snapped from the force behind his blades.

And like moths to a flame all of the crazed lust cursed woman began to make their way towards him all of them with that broken look in their eyes.

When they all began to basically surround him Kabal reaches back to his respirator. "Hope y'all don't get nightmares."

Then a thick black cloud of smoke came from his lower back and mask every time he breathed and he allowed them to get oh so close basically rubbing themselves all over him as they greedily breathed in his scent. And his magic.

And it was an almost instant reaction.

One began to scream then crawl away from him, then two more then another until eventually everyone in the cave looked at him as if he were the devil himself who had crawled straight from hell.

He looks around at the terrified and astounded women that had yet to leave the cages. "Alright then! My name is Kabal and I'm on a job from the Rose Order mercenary guild to save you. Now that introduction over we can all leave. So grab what you can from the clothes pile and whatever food you can. We're making a stop by the lake, there's a young woman there waiting for some of you. After that to Ken, from there I don't care where you go. Go to Feoh, stay in Ken, kill yourselves I really don't. So in short you are being rescued, and please don't resist."

He says casually before waking off to give them some privacy and a little time to collect themselves.

He then spent the next fifteen minutes listening to shuffle of clothes and the occasional sniffle as the group got ready to move.

"Alright lets go."

From there it was a trudge back to the lake at a pace that Kabal found absolutely insufferable. But when they got there and after watching the girl hug and cry over a few of them including the first one which had been her mother, Kabal felt honestly a bit better.

He also watched them morn the man who they called father and husband and kept his his distance and silence. He was cold but not a total bastard, that was Kano's forte.

He then got them all moving again taking supplies from the underground room the girl had been in and he gave them all pieces of dried meat or water to help raise their strength.

**Later**

By the time he reached Ken darkness had fallen over the kingdom and he was tired beyond all hell. All the running, fighting, and dealing with a group of barely clothed and emotionally traumatized women took it out of him.

So with feet almost like lead he made his way up to Maia's part of the castle in Ken and slapped the job posting and part of a horn and an eye on the table.

"Job's done." He says simply to the wide eyed redhead as she stared at him in shock as she thought the walk there and back alone would be over a day.

"And the women they took?" She asks skeptical of him.

"Safe here in Ken, yeah I know I made them walk for a while. But you can go ahead and bite me, they got rest and food. They wanted to be gone much more than I did, also get them to a doctor, or priest, probably both. They'll need all the help they can get." He says with a low and tired tone to his voice remembering their tear stricken and panicked faces and how they turned into tears of joy seeing Ken.

"Well, can't say I can complain about your results, your methods maybe, but you got the job done. Minotaurs are no easy monster to kill, and you took down five? That's pretty damn impressive I'm still shocked I've never heard of you though. Guy with your kind of abilities and skills, thought you'd be famous by now?" She asks jokingly at the mysterious man before her.

Kabal shakes his head, "More like infamous, but I'll take what I can get. So let's get down to business, my pay first of all for a the job. You and I both said this was the type of job not many if any could pull off, and here I am. So how much am I looking?"

Maia rolls her eyes, "Straight to the point huh. I can appreciate that."

She then walks over to a counter and unlocks a small safe in the wall, "The job was posted by the royal military so we already have the gold. Most jobs you take posted by villages or single people may not have it ready when you get there. As for your amount you're looking at a pretty solid two hundred and thirty gold coins." She says with an emphasis before dropping a few on the table one by one.

Kabal's eyes were absolutely glued to the metal coins as she counted and then piled them into the bag. She then walks over to him with a grin and tosses him the bag.

Catching it on reflex Kabal grinned at the weight, legit gold. He could live with this.

"Ok now two more things. First do I really have to go through some stupid initiation to get in or are we good? Second you mentioned quarters last time, do I have to pay for them?" He asks her while tightly holding onto the bag and watching her closely.

Maia smirks, "Well as for quarters you're more than welcome to stay here or you can rent a room down in the city, doesn't really matter to me. And yeah you're a member here, we don't do "ceremonies" that's not really our thing. So you don't really have to show up other than getting jobs or grabbing food and some booze."

She then stares at Kabal who just shrugged at the thought, "Well I'm here now might as well crash on a spare for the night. I'll think about where I'll permanently stay tomorrow, for now I'm beat."

He then walks away to find himself a bed and for the first time since he got here, or really since he got burned, Kabal closed his eyes and went to sleep.

**And Done **

**Ok so that's another chapter in the bag. I'm having fun writing again so I'll try to keep it up for my time here. **

**Other than that please Read and Review it always helps to see what y'all think of the story and I enjoy reading them. **

**Stay Cool**


	6. Stoking the Fire

I do not own Mortal Kombat or Kuroinu

"Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Dark Character"**

'_**Dark Character Thoughts'**_

**Chapter 5: Stoking the Fire **

Sitting atop a mountain is the eastern region of Eostia sat a small building that looked to be no more than a simple home.

It had no walls, no guards, and really nothing of value that could be seen on the outside.

But inside though was a different story. The inside held something that would change the entire future of the kingdom.

It held a spirit, a spirit of fire, rage, and change.

Inside the small and quaint little home sat a man in deep meditation, one that has been going on close to a whole day now.

The man sat still so still to the point of motionlessness as if he were more of a statue than living. Or really unliving in his case as it were.

The man slowly opened his and was greeted by the morning sun shining through the windows of his small shack of a home and he released a huge sigh as he thought on what he had been meditating.

Pale, white, and dead eyes turned to his kunai and chain that had been hung up onto a small statue in front of him with the symbol of a yellow scorpion with spears instead of claws and a stinger.

The symbol of the Shirai Ryu, his clan. His family. His home.

He had decided that it was time he began to live up to his future self's potential and rebuild his clan rather than burn the memories away.

He'd already lost the chance to get his clan back once, when the thunder god had promised him their resurrection for sparing the older Sub-Zero's life. But he had allowed his rage to blind him and cause him to act out and kill him, because of that damned sorcerer whispering what he wanted to hear. Just so he could make him into another servant of the Netherrealm and for Shinnok.

He saw this new realm as a chance to begin a new chapter of his life. True he may still have the body of a wraith, but his mind was human, he was still trying to figure out his soul though.

But never the less he would build them up again. To be what his other self had said they were, family by bonds rather than blood. If this were true then not all was lost. Family was still family after all.

And if it could be rebuilt then he would give it purpose, the same purpose that his future self and given them. They would no longer be those terrible and terrifying shadows in the night. Instead they would be the thing that made the people feel safe in this world of magic and monsters.

The Shirai Ryu would be the protectors that this world needs, deadly and silent hands to cull the herd and help where no one can see. It may also give him a chance to find the peace that his future self seemed to have found.

But that would come later, for now he has to figure out how? How will he do this?

Opening the door to his humble mountainside home Scorpion looked off into the distance and saw the city of Heiwana Basho. As of now it was the only real place that he knew of, well he knew of other cities around the land, but this was the only one he had been to, and it would be his beginning. He may grow to encompass the entire land one day, but for now he knew to start small.

'_**I find myself following it the footsteps of my predecessor. Grandmaster Takeda it seems I will repeat history in this place as you did in Japan. And like with you there is one who may be able to help.' **_With his mind made up to following the footsteps of his clan's founder he closed his eyes and began to focus until he disappeared in a small flash of hellfire.

**In the Palace**

Inside the actual city itself at its highest point inside one of its highest rooms sat a certain shrine maiden who could be found enjoying one of the many small pleasures she had thanks to both her position as a Shield Princess and High Priestess.

Some high quality food, whatever she wanted and whenever she wanted it.

She could be found in her room happily enjoying a small plate of fresh fruit from the fields and vineyards that were only a days ride away and a small side of fish and rice.

Some of her favorites had always been fresh fruit, so the woman didn't have a care in the world as she indulged a bit.

Today was supposed to be like any other day as the head maiden, blessings, reading of scrolls and notes to her fellow temple maidens, and walking the temple and maybe the city as well. If her guards permitted it that is, they were still very wary of the yellow clad warrior that had been here some months ago.

She thought back to when they spoke, both on the mountain and in her library. This Scorpion was the most interesting person she'd ever seen in her life. The man looked by all accounts to be a shinobi, an assassin, a killer. And while those were not too uncommon in her land that she didn't know of them, she knew they were all very secretive in their art and activities. And even when she and her two generals reached out to the clans they knew of no one had said anything about a man with abilities like his. But then again she also had a feeling that some could have lied to her.

Then there was the thing that made him so memorable to her.

Hellfire, she knew it the moment she laid eyes on that spiraling inferno that had brought him into this world, or realm as he called it.

She was a holy maiden by trade so the overwhelming feeling that those soul killing blazes had left her very uncomfortable with his mere existence. But for a man who used such vile magic and one who had no qualms beating her guards and destroying a landscape he intrigued her like no other.

The man was so unlike anything she'd ever seen something about his mere presence spoke volumes of his combat experience and his skill. Armor where it was needed, weapons of finely crafted steel, and magic that would even wound a god.

He was deadly by each and very definition of the word.

So why was she alive? Surly someone as dangerous as he could make off after killing her and easily survive in this world. So why would he choose to spare her and instead tell her about his goals for the world?

She shook her head at the thought, perhaps she would meet him again so she could learn more of him.

She hears a knock at her door and goes to answer it, "Yes?"

A temple servant bows to the head maiden, "My Lady I came to tell you that Shield Princess Prim has arrived at the temple gate. And that she apologizes for the unexpected visit, but she asks for your presence."

Kaguya tilts her head in confusion for a moment. For Prim to leave Feoh especially without Alicia by her side was something strange.

She looks back to her plate of food and sighs, "Tell Prim that I will meet with her soon. I'm just going to wash up and prepare, tell the other servants to make sure she is comfortable and to tend to her guards and their horses if they still have them."

The servants bows to her again and then quickly leaves so that Kaguya can get dressed and look a bit more presentable to a fellow Princess.

So turning around with an ever present stern or even deadpan face the woman goes over to her closet to fetch some more high quality robes.

But something in the air made her freeze in place and she felt the unmistakable feeling of someone else in the room.

She turns around slowly and scans the room with a glare as now every dark corner was now under suspicion.

She slowly brings her hands up and they begin to glow a dark blue before a magic circle appears on the floor below her. A small pulse of magic is expelled from beneath her and her eyes dart around looking for anything her Seeking Spell may find.

But to her surprise and growing discomfort she found nothing, everything was the same as it always was. But she still had an uneasy feeling pooling in her stomach nonetheless.

So deciding to simply be alert the woman begins to change never once leaving herself too vulnerable in case that feeling dread was not just paranoia.

"**Ignoring your instincts will be the death of you." **She hears in an almost disappointed tone of voice from behind her.

She turns around in a panic and sees Scorpion calmly sitting next to the table where she had been eating not even a minute prior.

She points a shaking hand at him with a spell already prepared to fire at him should he move in a threatening way. Though in the back of her mind she knew if he wished it she would've already died the money she turned her back.

"Why are you here?" She asks seriously wanting to get straight to the point.

He turns towards the door as the sound of footsteps could be heard of passing guards or servants, **"I seek information and a contract." **

Kaguya widens her eyes at the thought of a spirit such as he wanting a contract with her. What did that mean to him? They were from separate worlds or realms so it could mean something very different to him as opposed to her.

"What sort of contract, and what kind of information?" She asks wanting to know more, curious as to what it might be he wanted.

"**I seek information about the other shinobi clans in this land. I already know of they exist but I do not wish to make enemies as opposed to allies. You will tell them of me, if you haven't already. I wish to see if these clans are truly worthy to be called as shinobi." **

Hearing this she widened her eyes at what he was asking. True as the high priestess and Sheild Princess of the region she knew of the ninja clans that were under her and the city's services, but that was most of the time only on paper. Some clans obeyed with complete loyalty but others were more stubborn and became mercenaries to a degree.

So for Scorpion to go out and test them? That would definitely be something risky, some clans would attack on site for the sole reason that an outsider found them and others might do it because of the magic he uses.

"They will not take lightly to an outsider questioning them or their clan like that. They will fight you with tooth and nail to retain their honor." She says seriously not really knowing how'd he react.

Scorpion smirks behind his mask, **"I would expect nothing less. If they fight they have either pride or honor to defend and I will see which is more important to them."**

Kaguya could only blink at his confidence. "And what of the contract you spoke of? What kind of deal is it?"

Scorpion at first says nothing before standing up and unsheathing his Mugai Ryu calmly runs his fingers over the flat of the blade igniting in a glow of hellfire.

"**My contract is this, my blade and the blades of all who will carry the name of the Shirai Ryu. We will be the thing that your enemies fear and the eyes and ears hiding in the dark. In return I ask that you hold your honor and that you defend ours if that time should come, from any and all threats with absolute resolve." **He then expertly twirled the blade in his hand and calmly placed the sword back into its sheath.

Kaguya was now at a complete loss for words at the oath or contract that had been presented to her. Not only was he pledging himself, but his clan! This was completely insane she barely knew him!

"Why? Why pledge your clan to me? I don't know you, my allies don't know of you. The only time we spoke was when you first entered my realm. Why are you doing this, it makes no sense?" She says trying to figure out why someone so new to this world would give up their services to her.

Scorpion pauses for a moment, **"Because in my realm alliances are necessary to survive. Even before I gained this power my clan sought allies in our home country for support, payment, and an information network."**

So that was it? They help her and she helps them, she helps him build his clan and they will keep her region safe. Or maybe even all of Eostia from the sounds of it.

"If I were to make this pact with you, would you be willing to serve my queen? The goddess reborn Celestine Lucross? She could help you more than I ever could." She says trying to convince him to help not just her but the whole of the alliance as well.

Scorpion pauses again and begins to think. Having a bit of divinity in his corner would be extremely powerful, just look at how much power Raiden, Fūjin, and Cetrion had in and outside of battle. If their goddess was anywhere close to that level of power then should the worst come to pass it would be nice to know he wouldn't be doing all the heavy lifting in a battle.

But he was skeptical to accept, to pledge his loyalty to single city or region not that hard to protect as it was a limited area.

To protect an entire country on the other hand, that was going to take a lot. But perhaps with both a deity and an entire army on his side there was a chance for them to grow even more than he thought possible.

"**I made an oath to a god once to topple a titan, perhaps an oath to a goddess to kill monster may not be so different." **

Kaguya seemed to be honestly in disbelief at the statement. But she thought she might as well get used to the outlandish things that he'll be telling her.

"Well then, Scorpion of the Shirai Ryu is there anything else you have to ask of me?" She says now fully committed to having him as her ally.

The specter shook his head, **"Only that you honor your word, and assure that your goddess does the same. A broken vow is something that holds deadly consequences in my clan."**

Trying to ignore the death threat that had been casually tossed at her the woman nods to him, "I will do everything in my power and that all my influence will allow me to. I promise that from this day forward you and your clan will be allies and friends to the throne of Eostia. On my honor as a Shield Princess and as Head Shrine Maiden of this temple."

She then finishes with a bow to the ninja.

"**Very well then, I Scorpion of the Shirai Ryu accept your contract." **He then removes his tanto and carefully cuts open his palm.

"**And do hereby seal it in blood." **Kaguya unconsciously gulps down a lump in throat at the display.

She shaking reaches for the tanto but a small chuckle shakes her out of it.

"**That won't be necessary, the pact is sealed. You and I are now bound by contract." **He then sheaths his weapon and then without a sound walks back into the shadows.

**Later **

Kaguya quickly then got herself ready and tried to block the conversation with the yellow clad ninja from her mind as she made her way down to the temple's main area where she could see her temple guards in their traditional armor mingling with more hardened and rugged looking knights in their plate armor.

And in the center of them all standing very much out of place stood her fellow Princess Knight Prim.

Prim was young compared to the woman that made up the goddess' alliance, barely out of her childhood and not even eighteen yet. But she still held one similarity when compared to all other woman in the fact that she was incredibly beautiful in that young youthful or childish sort of way.

She had extremely pale skin, long flowing bright pink hair that ran down to her hips, and dark kind blue eyes that always seemed to hold a kind of child like wonder.

Her attire was a dress hand woven silken white and gold gown that was crafted to fit her impressive measurements for someone so young. It was long flowing but somewhat frilly and puffed at the arms and skirt. She left her shoulders and the top of her chest bare and had on a golden necklace with a large diamond in the center in between her breasts. And on her head was a small golden crown with two small red streamers coming off each end.

The younger girl smiled when she saw the older Shield Princess and walked briskly to greet her followed closely by two knights.

"Kaguya, it's good to see you again." She says with a bright smile on her face as she walks up to the other woman.

The older woman nodded to her, "I'm glad you made it here safely from Feoh Prim, but why are you here? Normally you or Alicia would've told me if you were coming, has something happened?"

Prim just shook her head, "No the city is fine right now it's just that Alicia wanted me to get out a bit more. She wanted to come as well but some things came up and she wasn't able to, but she sends her regards."

This made the older woman raise a brow, normally Alicia and Prim were always together to the point where the actual ruler was seen as a body guard to the younger girl. So for the Iris Knight to stay behind and let her cousin leave the city for a mere visit? Something didn't seem right. And she had a bad feeling about whatever it was.

"Well shall we go inside?" Prim asks gesturing to the building behind them.

Kaguya nods to her, "Of course you've already made the trip here. It would be rude of me to not show hospitality."

The two of them then walk into the building followed closely by their guards who were still casually speaking to one another.

Though some of the more veteran knights felt the hair on their necks stand up as soon as they entered the building. Something they all immediately noticed and gripped their swords at.

With the two Princesses they had gotten to a more comfortable room with a low table with cushions for the two of them and a separate one for one guard each.

Kaguya waved a servant over and ordered that she bring them tea for their guests, and then goes back to Prim who was still smiling the whole time.

"So Prim are you sure that there is nothing to discuss while you're here? This sort of visit isn't too common seeing as it was completely unannounced, normally I would've prepared rooms for you and your guards beforehand. Are you sure things are alright?" She asks the pink haired girl.

Prim for her part didn't react too readable but a small part of her seemed very uneasy. "Well I apologize for the inconvenience. But to be completely truthful this visit is more of a last minute safety precaution over anything else." She says with a shy and nervous tone.

"Safety? What happened?" Kaguya asks now very concerned as to what happened to Prim or Alicia back in Feoh.

"Well, Alicia sent me here because she thought you could help us, and because she doesn't really trust think I should be in the city. She wanted to tell you earlier but she didn't want anyone other than her personal knights to know I was coming here"She says nervously looking to her knight and then sipping from her tea.

"Since a little over a month three of our higher nobles have been killed in their homes. And my cousin believes that something magical is to blame for the deaths. And you are the most magically adept that she knows of, so she sent me here in hopes that you could help us." She says nervously but still trying to be dignified about it.

The older woman now grows very serious at the mention of this. They were at war after all and political assassination was definitely something to watch out for. If any of the Seven Princess were killed the moral of their armies and the support of the mercenaries would dwindle if not completely be destroyed.

But something about this was wrong, true while assassination was always a threat in this millennium long war, the Dark Queen never once really used it to target nobles in cities. Maybe it was used against nobles at times in the past, but they were also military leaders in the field, which was always the bigger goal. To weaken military leadership and moral.

They always figured she never cared for the nobles that stayed behind because most of those fighting didn't care for them. What good was a merchant hiding behind walls when compared to a General on the battlefield?

But to suddenly start and in a city as large as Feoh with their famous churches and healing priests? This was a first for them. Especially since there was such a high chance of being caught.

And the other thing is that most of the northern forces are not well suited for such things. Sure the dark elves were skilled swordsmen, archers, and even mages in some cases, but assassins? No they had too much pride to hide in the shadows. If they wanted to kill humans, high elves, or halflings they would kill them where everyone could see and then parade the body around for all to see.

And monsters on the other hand were almost always too stupid, brash, or impatient for that kind of task. Most of the common ones like orcs, imps, and ogres were always far too large, clumsy, and loud to be stealthy.

True there were a very select few monster types that could carry out such a task, but most of them wouldn't do it in Feoh.

Vampires were the first to come to mind, they ranged from horrid man sized creatures with razor sharp claws and fangs to more human or elfin looking ones. The latter were more likely to do this, but again they like the Dark Elves has too much pride to lower themselves to be a lowly assassin. Not to mention the strong presence of the many churches and priests often gave them away.

She thought and thought about what it could be but shook her head, "Prim did Alicia ever tell you of the deaths? Perhaps you've seen them or heard about the victims?"

The teenage pinkette frowned at the question, "She did tell me of them yes, for the sake of telling you. They were murdered in their homes, throats cut cleanly open. No one saw a thing, no signs of struggling aside from disheveled bedsheets. Even the guards didn't know that it had happened till the next morning."

Kaguya put her hand to her chin and began to think. The fact that there was no suspicion noise, or signs of biting or claws was very strange as almost every monster that used weapons was most definitely not the silent type.

There was however two exceptions, doppelgängers or a traitorous human.

And each presented its own problems. Doppelgängers were shapeshifters and could be anyone they have ever met, but the crux of this was that whoever they were pretending to be had to be both still alive and unaware of their existence. That and they had none of the person's skills or memories.

And if it were a human then that raised the questions of traitors in the ranks of the alliance. That was something else entirely, something that should be handled very differently and with a bit more time to root out any and all traces of treason.

Kaguya was honestly somewhat stumped by the thought. If it were a doppelgänger magic could be used against them but it were a human then all bets were off as to how long it would take to find them.

A thought appeared in her mind though, one that made her both nervous and somewhat curious.

Could a recent ally of her's be the ticket they needed?

He definitely had the skills to do so and they had made the pact no more than two hours ago. So it wasn't like he could've gone far if he'd left at all.

"Prim I think I may have a solution to your problem." She says still not fully confident herself of the deal.

The pink haired girl smiled and leaned forward eager to hear what the woman had to say.

Kaguya looks to her guard and the knight Prim had brought into the room. "Could you please ask your knight to leave, I will do the same with my guard. The matter must be discussed between only the two of us."

Prim nods and motions her personal knight to leave along with the guard who followed closely behind.

"So what did you have in mind Kaguya? A magic spell perhaps? Or is it a summon or familiar that can track the killers down?" She asks wanting to see if the priest was going to use something on the more mystical side of things.

The priestess shook her head, "No not exactly."

She then turns away from Prim and stares at one of the many shadows in the room.

"Scorpion." She says to the air.

And as if the shadows came alive a figure dropped from the ceiling behind Prim, dead white eyes locked onto her form and soul.

"**Yes? What is it you called me for?" **The sudden and deep voice behind her made the younger girl jump back in surprise at the noise.

And when she recovered and she was able to take in Scorpion's full appearance she couldn't help but both widen her eyes and shake in slight fear.

Kaguya smiles knowing she had much the same reaction seeing him so close. "I call upon our pact. It may very soon but I would like you to assist Prim."

She gestures arm to nervous girl beside her, "She is under the threat of assassination and I would like you to track and eliminate the ones who would do it."

Scorpion looked her over, **"Simple enough. It will be done. After I speak with the Serpent clan." **

The second part made Kaguya raise a brow at him. "But she's in danger this cannot wait."

Scorpion though just waved her off, **"It can actually, she is safe here. If the assassin were among them she would've died on the road here. I will return soon then I will follow her back to her city. Afterwords I assure you, your enemies will be dead before the dawn."**

He then simple began to vanish is a slow burning fire until there was nothing but the smell of embers in the room.

"So, he is one of your ninja?" Prim asks mesmerized by the small display of magic. Her first time actually seeing magic in person.

Kaguya though shook her head, "Not exactly one of mine, I suppose you could say an acquaintance willing to help out in the war."

**With Scorpion **

He appears deep in a underground cave far to the south of the city and immediately knew he was on the right path.

Scorpion wasn't always lingering simply to listen in on the conversation they were having. He had first broke into privet records to find the shinobi clans of this land.

True one of the reasons he had made a pact was for information, he just didn't wait until Kaguya told him. He'd rather get it himself and go from there.

He was tired of waiting for others to do things for him, Quan Chi, Kronika, Raiden, Sub-Zero he knew it'd be better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.

And he also knew she'd been thrown off by the simple fact of his existence alone. His little pack and the fact that he was already willing to do a mission or rather a favor for her was more of a front for the time being.

He was still just one man, to do any real work he needed man power and fast. Then he'd start really becoming the force of good he vowed to be.

He also knew that it was clear he'd overwhelmed her with his decree and oath. So she wouldn't really notice the fact that he already knew a few secrets he wasn't supposed to if he was an ally and one that answered to only her and her goddess.

Being known only to a few, but having those few fear you was a powerful thing. The only thing better would've been to be a complete unknown. But that was off the table from his mere entrance into the realm.

He knew that if he didn't speak with her soon that she'd start asking questions about him to others in high places. And those questions would make him known to more and more people. Killing his clan before he could ever get it started.

So he figured that it would be better to control a slow and steady burn of information, rather than try to silence and temper a wildfire. Have only a select few know rather than be spread by rumor.

But enough of that now, he had a clan to speak with. One of three he'd learn.

First was the Serpent clan, they were known for their skills in assassination and medicine.

Next was the clan of the Hornet, smaller but more finite in their approach to shinobi arts they did assassination but focused more on espionage and secrecy over anything else.

And finally there was the clan of the Owl. From what he read they were a clan that was skilled in of all things recovery and scouting rather than combat related arts. But they were the smallest and closest to dying off so he chose to save them for last as they were most likely going to offer the least amount to the new clan.

Coming to a splitting section in the cave Scorpion looks to the ceiling and then to the multiple paths before him. For all he knew each lead to a trap so it would be best to call for help, sort of.

He twitched his right hand and fired his kunai and chain into a stalagmite near him with a flick of his wrist wrapped the rock in loop of metal.

Calmly pulling his chain closer and closer the yellow clad ninja comes face to face with a camouflaged ninja that had been hiding on the other side.

The woman wore traditional black ninja attire with full body cloth and sandals along with a small bit of leather armor around her legs, arms, and shoulders.

Her head was covered only in a mask and hood with the mask having a mark of a posies cobra in dark red. And she seemed to only be armed with a single blade over her shoulder and a pouch with stars and kunai on her hip.

"**Your technique needs work. I knew you were there from the sound of your breathing and the smell of the poison you coated your blade in. So now that I've caught a snake, will you lead me to your den?" **He says with a wide and firm teacher's voice.

The captured ninja didn't even put up any form of resistance to him as she locked eyes through a gap in the cloth.

She at first didn't say anything as she was still trapped but she did break eye contact from the older ninja.

"And lead my clan to ruin? I would rather be killed here and now." She says with a serious and unflinching tone.

"**I do not wish to ruin your clan. I merely seek an audience with your grandmaster, I have an offer that will be interesting for him to hear."** He say while loosening the chain and taking a few steps back allowing her much needed freedom.

She stares for a moment as the chain crawls back into its place into a slot on his right forearm.

"What offer do you bring?" She asks curious.

"**I am Scorpion, grandmaster of Shirai Ryu and seek an alliance with your clan. I've spoken with Kaguya, your Shield Princess, and she is willing to supply your clan with resources from the whole of Eostia or at least as much as her own position will allow." **

The woman widens her eyes at the information, "I see, is that how you found us? She told you of us?"

He nods.

Then she looks him over once more and slowly walks past him. "Take this path, it will lead you to our outer sanctuary. You will lead and I will follow, and no threatening movements."

Scorpion nods understanding knowing he'd have his own members do the same thing.

So she led him down the tunnel deeper underground and eventually they came to a great stone gate.

He stares at the gate and was actually impressed by it for a time before his senses picked up the presence of other ninja hiding in the shadows around them.

"**You can come out now."** He says a bit impatient.

Three more black cloaked figures emerged from the dark and all had their blades poised to strike should he move in a way they don't like.

They quickly though turn to look at the one who brought him here, "Why have you brought an outsider here? He could be a threat."

She slowly moves around to join them and calmly places a hand on her own blade, "He had his chance to kill me earlier in the tunnel. But he chose to be lead here, he claims that Kaguya-sama has made a pact with him. He also claims to be the grandmaster of his clan, and seeks an audience with our own."

This changes the attitude the others had as they saw him now as either a liar or an even bigger threat.

They look to each other before one walks to the gate and cuts a thumb to smear a bit of blood in the center of the gate.

Scorpion raises a brow at the sound of turning gears and slowly shifting rock as the gates opened to reveal a pristine looking garden on the other side.

In the center stood around ten other Serpent clan ninja sparing against one another with a single woman overlooking the training.

They all stopped when they caught site of him being escorted and his escorts quickly left his side to go up to their clan head.

"Grandmaster, this man wishes to speak with you." One says while dipping to one knee and bowing.

The woman that had been watching over the sparring session stands up and brings up a long and finely crafted wooden pipe and takes a long winded puff of tobacco.

She then exhales a larger cloud of smoke and when in the few seconds it took for the cloud of smoke to dissipate she was gone.

Scorpion unfazed just looks to his left and sees that the woman had gotten much closer allowing him to get a real proper look a the clan's grandmaster.

She a beautiful pale skinned woman with a figure that only a goddess or a seductress could have. With a massive chest proudly on display to him almost threatening to burst from her clothes, wide and womanly curves at her waist and hips, and from her exposed arms and partial legs a great deal of toned muscle.

Her hair was and color of gold and done into a large bun on the back of her head held in place with three hair pieces in the shape of a cobra. With each pin being pitch black with rubies for eyes.

Her eyes were a dark green like that of the deep forest, and they seemed to be drinking in and studying the man before her with great interest.

And curious to him her ears were elongated and ended in a fine point.

Her attire though seemed to be a mix of both function and fashion. A deep red colored and shorter than usual kimono struggled to hold in her figure with a black obi wrapping around her waist and traditional wooden sandals.

But what he chose to focus on more than anything was the sword at her waist held by her obi. It looked as if she used the same weapon as he did.

"So then, what's your story? It's been some time since an outsider had the courage to just walk up unannounced." She says looking him up and down once more before taking a step back.

"**I am Scorpion grandmaster of the Shirai Ryu, I wished to speak with you about expansion of my clan." **He says trying to be professional, the woman reminded him a bit too much of Mileena.

She cocks a brow at him, "Your clan? That's interesting, what are you looking into our territory? Or is it something else, after all I'm I'm sure someone of your stature as a grandmaster should be able to take care of his own?"

Scorpion narrows his eyes at her, **"I am a grandmaster to none, not anymore. But I've made a pact with Kaguya and with it I seek out the three clans her city has allied with her. With the goal of bringing them under one banner." **This gets him a stern and much less friendly look from the other grandmaster.

"And I suppose to bring us under a banner you mean _your _banner? What would happen if I were to say no, if I said leave and never return ever. Or else be marked for death." She says with one hand gripping her sword and the other bringing the pipe to her mouth.

Scorpion slowly reaches for his as well, **"I do not seek war, only redemption. But I honor my word, and I gave my word to slaughter all those who stand against me and my allies. I do not wish to harm you, I would rather speak than resort to fighting. But if you only wish for us to be enemies, then you will face me in Mortal Kombat." **

The elvish grandmaster exhales a cloud of sweet smelling smoke and smirks. "Color me curious then, we seem to serve the same master but I much rather fly my own flag as opposed to another clan's. So then what are the rules of your Mortal Kombat? I imagine there can't be many."

Scorpion cracks his neck and heat begins to build in the area, **"First to fall is the looser, and the decision of victory is final. Victory grants you the right to your opponent's life, or their favor. Other than that the only other rule is that outside interference negates the fight of any and all victory." **

The woman before him smirked and placed her pipe firmly in between her teeth and motions for her students to step back.

"So let me get this straight, you want to talk about us becoming part of your clan? And after making a pact with the Sheild Princess you track us down? And now here we are about to fight, you're not the best at this are you?"

He then drew his sword and dropped into a low stance, **"So then are you prepared?" **

She smirks at him and draws her own blade, "A fight to the death with another grandmaster for the fate of my clan? I would love to, haven't had anything close to a challenge in almost two hundred years. I hope you don't disappoint."

They both then watch as a lone leaf began to fall gently from the nearby tree, each of them ready to strike with the deadly skill of a predator.

And when the leaf softly hit the ground both were gone in a cloud of dust.

**And Done!**

**So this one took longer to put out because I had it almost finished I reread and it just didn't fit at all it was clunky in a way. **

**So I went back and fixed it where I could and rewrote what I needed to. **

**And I like this version much better. **

**But anyway please if you would Read and Review, it really does help.**

**Stay Cool**


	7. Rulers in the North

I do not own Mortal Kombat or Kuroinu

"Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Dark Character Speech"**

_**Dark Character Thoughts'**_

**Chapter 6: Rulers in the North**

If there was one thing the Tarkata tribe was known for besides their combat skill, savage fighting style, or their infamous brutality it would surprisingly be there skills in the kitchen.

Any meat no matter how tough, cheap, or old could be turned into a dish fit for a Lord in his keep.

They perfected these skills with the mindset of any meal could there last, so they ate like kings at every feast the tribe held.

Such as the one that was being held now.

Baraka took a huge bite out of a leg of roast and watched on as young Tarkatan men fought with their fists in a cleared center pit.

So far the fights weren't the best he'd seen, but they weren't bad if not compared to him. He'd always been a cut above the average Tarkatan. He was born stronger, faster, and more vicious then other chieftains had been for centuries. Even his arm blades were sharper and stronger than elders thought possible.

And with all the genetic cards stacked in his favor Baraka easily took the place of chief when he came of age, and ever since then has lead the Tarkatans from one raid to the next.

But then came Earthrealm.

His tribe's worst defeat, and his only real failure in his own eyes.

Loosing a fight, not the worst thing that can happen but it was still something he trained to overcome. So that the next time he meets an opponent he may cut them to pieces.

But a failed invasion was something that left a stain on him as a leader.

He trusted Kano and the weapons he had given them while in Outworld. Those same weapons turned out to be quite faulty and unreliable, the opposite of what was promised.

Thus when they attacked the more precise and accurate weapons of the Special Forces cut his warriors to shreds in hails of automatic fire.

Then came Shao Khan's death.

After that it was uncertain where they would go from there, but Mileena made them promises. Promises for the most part she kept.

And then there was a future he didn't know existed.

Apparently Mileena looses the thrown and he dies in combat to that, cunt of a Kytinn.

Knowing he dies in battle is a small comfort, but still he also learned that Kotal as Khan exterminates all of Tarkata for siding with Mileena. That was something Baraka would never allow to happen while he still drew breath.

He laughs seeing the two fighters finish their bought as one now lay there groaning with a broken arm and the other one towering over with a roar of victory.

"**You fought well young one. Go and eat enjoy your victory." **He says in their native language to the winner.

The younger warrior turns and puts an arm over his heart and give a small bow to the chief as he walks over to waiting friends already with food and drink ready for him.

He then turns his attention to the looser who got up and was cradling his broken arm.

"**You lacked the strength to best your opponent whelp. So now you must serve him. But first go to the healer and she will fix that mess of an arm." **He commands.

The other young warrior grimaces at the command but offers no quarrel with the order and leaves to see the healer.

It was then that Baraka scanned the crowd with a judging gaze and pointed to three young ones who had yet to fight in the pits. **"You three, you will fight me in the pit. I've seen enough fights between amateurs. So now your chief will show you proper Tarkatan fighting!" **

The crowd roars with excitement as the three younger fighters eagerly walk into the pit, a chance to prove themselves to the chief directly was not something happens often.

They all lined up across from him and all four warriors crossed their arms over their chest and extended their blades. A sign of readiness for battle.

Baraka then charges with a roar of excitement, almost catching the three off guard.

The others charge as well meeting their chief in combat with the first one flying at him with a kick, but he was simply redirected and landed on the ground behind him in a heap.

Baraka then goes for a charging knee but the second one blocks it while the last one comes around for a cross to the jaw.

But Baraka was more than ready as he snapped out his leg into the second's thigh staggering him and allowing Baraka to catch his balance again. So that when the last one final connected a punch it was blocked by the older Tarkatan's forearm.

Baraka then quickly comes around with an elbow to the third's face and with a bit of distance and momentum snapped his arm out to a backhand.

Though he knew his little blow wouldn't do too much, even young Tarkatans were hardier than most other opponents. The first and second had come back each now circling him.

Baraka cracks his neck before a fanged smile came to his lips and he snaps at the first with a lightning fast side kick.

It connects to the younger warrior's side sending him flying back as the second one goes for a knee to the chief's back while it was turned. Baraka was ready for it though and plants his foot back and raises his own knee to catch it, and the extra resistance caught the other Tarkatan off guard Baraka gave him a proper headbutt to the teeth followed by two solid jabs to the chest.

"**You can do better!" **He roars before they become locked in a battle of blows each throwing jabs, reverses, and crosses with the other expertly blocking them.

But Baraka knew the other two were closing in, so breaking away from the punching Baraka locks an overeager jab and flips the younger male over his shoulder on top of the first one that got to them.

The third though was unhindered and managed to land a push kick to Baraka's gut forcing the chief into a roll to land on his feet.

"**Ha you kick like a rabbit, let me show you whelps how to kick like a Centaur!" **Baraka then runs and springs towards them using his blades as a boost to land a brutal double footed blow onto the first one's chest.

And he laughed at the sound and feeling of ribs cracking underneath.

"**That's how it's done boy." **He says to the one who was now rolling on his back in pain.

The other two roared with anger as they both charged and began throwing wild haymakers trying to land a solid blow on the chief.

But for all their effort Baraka simply kept expertly blocking them. He then lets out a grunt of effort and locks onto one's arm and brings him in close. From there he planted a knee to the gut followed by an uppercut to finish him off.

The final one after watching the others get viciously beaten took a few steps back and began to sweat as he looked to Baraka.

"**Well? Don't keep us waiting whelp, fight!" **The chief yelled before flying towards him with a flying overhead hammer fist. But the younger warrior couldn't react almost as if he were frozen.

So it came to no surprise that when Baraka came down with two massive fists the poor boy stood no chance.

Baraka looks to the unconscious fighter beneath him and snarled, **"Freezing like that is real Combat will get you killed whelp. Trust your instincts, and never let up." **

He then walks back to his place at the high table and grabs hold of his mug, a hallowed out ogre skull, **"To Tarkata!" **

The crowd roars with approval as they all raise their cups or their arm blades. **"To Tarkata!"**

The feast begins to slow down for a bit as the healers took care of the those that had been injured in the fights and most had already gone to sleep. But Baraka didn't sleep just yet, a sinking feeling in his gut told him something was off. Something was going to happen, but he didn't know what.

He looks to one of the remaining guards and motions him over, **"Yes Chief?"**

"**Tell the other guards to be vigilant tonight. I smell something off in the air. Have them ready." **He orders.

The guard wastes no time and begins spreading the orders to every other guard that had been around and soon every guard in the camp knew. And now all they could do was wait and see what came for them.

**Morning**

Hours past and yet no guard slept.

But when the sun was threatening to cross the tree line, there came a figure from the trees. The figure seemed to either be a rider and their horse, or a centaur.

The guards signaled each other and further into the camp and soon Baraka came to the edge of the camp to see what all the noise had been about.

"**What is it?" **He asks walking up to the closest guard who had been watching the tree line.

He guard turns to him and hands him a crudely made spyglass.

"**We spotted it not too long ago chief, hasn't moved since then it's just been sitting there. Almost like it's watching us." **

Baraka closes the spyglass and hands it back to the guard, **"Because it is." **

He makes his way down to the entrance of the tent and starts walking out into the open field and faced the mysterious horseman.

Neither moves for a time before Baraka unsheathes his two arm blades and narrowed his eyes at the figure.

Then for some reason the figure began to make its way towards him, allowing him and his warriors to see that it was a rider rather than a centaur.

What caught his attention was the rider themselves. They didn't seem that large but they had a rather exquisite looking armor set.

Pitch black in color with traces of gold over the chest and limbs and a large ruby like gem in the center of the chest.

The head though instead of metal was wrapped in cloth making up a hood and mask combo, still black and gold but it at least allowed him to see the rider's eyes. Two staring pools of black.

The rider came to a stop a little ways in front of him and for some reason dismounted.

They started walking towards him reaching for something behind their person when Baraka called out.

"**If you value your life outsider, slowly remove your hood and mask. You've been watching us for some time, and now you ride towards us only when one of us leaves the safety of our camp? You paint yourself a threat, so unless you wish to return in pieces do as I ask. **He almost growls towards the rider with that low and somewhat beast like voice that all Tarkatans have.

The rider stops in their tracks nods, "I suppose you're right."

Baraka watches carefully as they slowly reach up to pull down the hood and mask. And they were fully lowered it was revealed that the rider to be a young woman with dark chocolate brown skin light brown colored hair done in a long ponytail. And long pointed ears each with five golden piercings lining the sides.

In truth this was the first time Baraka or any Tarkatan had actually seen an elf of any kind, but at this point Baraka wasn't at all impressed. He'd fought with and against creatures like the Shokan, Centaur, Kytinn, Humans, Undead, Oni, and many more that called any of the numerous realms home.

"**What do you want elf?" **

The woman begins reaching behind her slower than the first time and brings out a rolled up piece of paper tucked inside an ivory case.

"My Queen has heard rumors of your tribe, and of your prowess in battle. So she wishes to have an audience with your leader. To see if your tribe and the Northern Army can come to an agreement that will see both of us prosper." She says in a reserved and unflinching tone of voice.

Baraka retracts his blades and slowly walks up to her. He eyes her carefully and grabs the paper case from her hand.

"**An agreement? Why seek us out when she has her own army and a hoard of monsters to call? What does she need Tarkata for that she can't do herself. We've seen her enemies, and we are not impressed, she should be able to win on her own in no more than half a century." **He says casually knowing that with superior numbers the North would win eventually.

The elf smirked at his claim, "While you are right. The Queen still wishes to speak with your leader, your reputation has spread to the point where it has reached even her ears. Tales of savage and deadly warriors taking out whole camps of monsters. Monsters who serve her, I'm sure you understand where I'm going with this. She wishes to discuss agreements regarding your….raids on her monsters."

With one a lingering look to the paper in his hands Baraka looks back to the elf. **"How will your queen arrange this meeting? Our tribe is nomadic, and we do not stay in one place for long. Or even if we agree to meet her in the first place?"**

The elf for her part seemed not at all bothered by the questions and pointed to the paper in his hands, "The Queen has placed a spell on that parchment in your hands. She is able to know where it is at all times, she does this with any and all important documents. We will have no issue finding you to receive your answer. As for the other question, you need only sign at the bottom and the Queen will know."

Baraka scowled at the thought of magic. **"Fine, I will hear her. Though I know I won't like it. Tell your Queen Tarkata will talk, but we are not friends." **

The elf nods, "Of course."

She then walks back to her horse and has one last look to the chief, "Until we meet again then."

Baraka nods but doesn't give her a second look as he turns back to his camp.

"_**Damn it, more monarchs and rulers." **_He growls in his own head as he walks back to the camp.

He'd been hoping to just roam like the old ways dictated, but it seems that another ruler thought to tie them down.

He didn't care what this Queen could offer them, everything came with a string attached. And he would not let his tribe be slaves again, not like they were under Shao Khan.

But, could they really survive on their own, against a full army? Kotal Kahn wiped them out completely in the future after he died. So could he afford to throw away a potential ally? Though it sounds like this Queen was already pissed off that they've been killer her monsters.

If so why send an elf rather than some other creature, why not a vampire or beast folk? He wasn't sure why, but either way he was faced with a choice, and it came down to a simple phrase.

Join or Die.

He finally reached his personal tent and sighed before clenching his knuckles and growling under his breath.

He quickly opened the seal and looked to the paper that the elf had given him and unsheathed one of his blades.

He glared at it like it was his most hated enemy, and in a way it was. He was temped, really temped, to just shred the thing and be done with it. Move camps and then increase their raids on monsters and host feast after feast with different cuts of different monsters as the center point of his table.

But he stopped himself.

It was a shit choice really, but anyone who used magic on simple objects rather than combat let Baraka know that who ever this Queen was most likely was a sorcerer. And sorcerers were very tricky.

So he'd have to play it out, for now.

He looked to the bottom and saw the literal bottom line. Where he was supposed to sign.

With a sigh and a growl he slammed the paper onto the table before walking out of his tent.

"_**I need to kill something." **_He says still angry at the situation.

**Meanwhile **

Far to the North away from the Tarkatan camp and all the fighting that had been going on for a millennium stood the imposing and impressive Black Keep. Home to dark elf army lead by their queen, Olga Discordia.

The queen herself was an almost ethereal level of beauty as though she was over a thousand years old the elf still retained all of her youth and beauty from her prime.

Dark chocolate brown and flawless skin, with honey colored eyes that held an air of regal authority, and long, silky, black hair that reached all the way down to the backs of her kneecaps.

She wore an elegant purple colored dress that went down to about her knees and sleeves ending at her wrists. She also had on high heeled shoes of the same color, five golden earrings in each of her pointed ears, and a small but very regal looking silver and ruby encrusted crown.

And said queen had been looking into her crystal orb and enjoying her view of a certain war camp that had been reinvigorated to fight and hunt.

She looked up from her crystal and looked around to the grand dining room she was in with all her entrances being guarded by her elite elven knights.

She used monsters for fodder, but when it came to her personal protection she preferred skill and training over instinct.

She watches again as their chieftain ripped his blades from the chest of a large bear that the hunting party had tracked to its den.

"Very impressive." She says with a smirk while swirling a goblet of red wine.

She hears her doors opening and looks to see her personal aid and ward Chloe.

"My Queen." She says with a bow.

Chloe like Olga was a beautiful site with lighter colored skin more of a caramel, ruby colored eyes, and light blonde hair done in a small ponytail that only reached the tops of her shoulders. She also like her queen had a figure fit for a goddess with elven beauty being a clear trait of the two.

She unlike her queen chose to where less regal clothes and wore a set of dark blue pants and a similar top with short sleeves ending at just above the elbow. She also had on thigh high black leather boots that she tucked her pants into and a set of brown leather gloves on her hands.

Olga looks to her personal servant and motions her over, "There you are Chloe, come tell me what do think of these Tarkatan tribesmen?"

The younger elf walks over and looks into the crystal ball and immediately frowns at the site of brawling savages fighting in a camp.

"They look like uncivilized degenerates to me. Why are you watching them my Lady?" She says with a bit of an attitude after watching the, in her eyes, not so impressive display.

Olga smirks, "True they may be savage, but most great warriors have a touch of savagery. I have a good few reasons to see this tribe as some of the greater warriors in the North."

"Don't we already have enough monsters as it is? What more could one tribe worth be." She asks seriously as she was not the biggest fan of monsters, so she wasn't looking forward to dealing with more brutish perverts.

Olga though smiles at her personal servant, "Because these are different, they kill and eat other monsters."

That little bit threw Chloe for a loop, "What? They kill, other monsters?"

Olga points a finger to the orb and turns in a counter clockwise motion and shows Chloe an attack that happened weeks ago on an orc war caravan.

She saw through the orb that these Tarkatans ambushed them from the cliff above and using both skill and pure savagery in combat slaughtered everything in their path. Even the human prisoners that had been captured, all the while laughing and taking bites out of the occasional corpse.

"These Tarkatans are unlike monsters that we are used to, they are much more akin to what monsters used to be. Feral, vicious, blood thirsty pure unadulterated savages. Very different when compared to the monsters today." She says removing her hand and letting the image fade.

Chloe for her parts looks somewhat ill at what she witnessed. She had seen some terrible things her life as both a slave and now as an advisor to the Queen, but that was pure unadulterated carnage.

The monsters they used now had some form of objective when they fought, to kill the men so they can use the women. Reproduction to replenish their numbers.

But that was simply killing for the sake of killing. Butchering prisoners that the monsters had taken, eating them and dragging away bodies to probably cook and eat those as well.

This was a level of violence that she just wasn't used to seeing. After all she's never seen combat in person.

"It all seems a bit too much my Lady. What's to stop these savages from killing our own soldiers and monsters?" She asks.

The Queen brushes some of her hair out of her face, "I am willing to compromise when dealing with these people. Just think of the affect they would have on the Alliance, one battle and a Tarkatan warrior rips one of those Princess apart or even that leader of the Dogs Vult. Their armies would shake where they stood if they knew a monster horde like that one was coming."

Chloe knee her queen was right, fear was a powerful tool. And these Tarkatans were certainly fearsome.

"So then, we just wait for their chief to decide?" She asks.

Olga nods, "Let them take their time, it doesn't matter. They'll see that joining us is only going to better them."

**Timeskip **

A full month had gone by but Baraka had finally made his choice, best to get this over with and meet with the Queen.

He had already signed the paper and was now waiting at the center of his camp for a messenger to appear.

Though he didn't wait long as he felt the tell tale signs of magic in the air.

Soon a small rift begin to form in front of him allowing the messenger to walk through.

It was an elf in robes and expensive looking ones at that.

"Chief of the Tarkatan tribe I presume?" He asks looking towards Baraka.

The chief nods and stands up to meet him, **"Be quick about it elf, before I regret this meeting." **

The elf looking slightly offended brushes it off with a scuff and begins to walk back through the portal with Baraka very slowly following close behind.

"**Wait." **He says suddenly.

The messenger turns to face him.

"**This must be a trap, to lead me through a portal? What assurance do I have that you will not attack when I emerge on the other side or that I will be allowed to leave if your queen isn't satisfied?" **He says tempted to unsheathe his blades.

The man goes to open his mouth but another voice beats him too it, "You have my word Chief, that no matter how this meeting ends, you will have safe transport back."

"**And just what is your word worth?" **

Baraka could practically feel some smugness in the air after that, "My word is worth its weight in gold and jewels. But if it comforts you I will leave the portal open."

Baraka looks to the others around Tarkatans that made it to the entrance and knew his people would back him up should things turn south.

"**This had better not be a damned lie."** He growled before walking through followed by a few of his warriors.

When he reached the other side he was met with a throne room.

It seemed large but relatively empty, much like Shao Khan's has been. But he was still able to see the guards posted all around him and he made a mental note of how many.

He then looked to the actual throne and finally laid eyes on the Queen of the North, Olga Discordia.

She sat in her elevated throne with a black metal staff ending with a large ruby in her right hand, and to her left stood Chloe.

Baraka knew she was going to try something, he just felt it in his bones, but he wanted to see how this went.

"Greeting Chieftain, I am Queen Olga Discordia, and this is my ward Chloe. Welcome to the Black Keep." She says gesturing an arm to the room around her.

Baraka doesn't react much but still looks.

"**I am Baraka, Chieftain and master of the Tarkatan horde." **He finishes with a booming voice for his introduction.

Olga knew she had quite the warrior in her presence seeing his skills via a crystal ball was one thing. Actually being in the same room she could tell that the man before her had quite the menacing presence.

And he'd yet to even draw his blades.

Chloe though simply stared in silence.

"So then, Chieftain what say we begin discussing things. Starting with the reason I've called you here. For the last few months you and your hoard have been killing monsters that happen to be members of my army. I have a war to win so that is something I cannot have." She says with a bit of her authority leaking through.

"**Tarkata needs meat and your monsters have fed us well. I will not tell my warriors to just go hungry." **He replies bluntly.

Chloe grits her teeth at his attitude towards her queen but still holds her tongue.

Olga though was prepared. "That is true, you are a leader so you must provide for your people. But I am also a leader and I can't have an unknown force going around slaughtering my monsters, and weakening my army."

"**Tarkata did not attack first your monsters attacked first. They took Tarkatan prisoners and were about violate them." **He snaps at her.

"**So we assured that any and all other monsters will know what happens to those who go against us. And left their bones picked clean on stakes." **He says darkly and with a clear threatening undertone.

Olga though didn't react outwardly at least, "I knew about the bones and stakes but the taking of prisoners is new information to me. Perhaps I might need to reign them in a bit. Still though almost all of them want you and your tribe wiped off the face of earth for what you did and still do to their brothers."

Baraka scuffed, **"They could try, but better warriors have and failed."**

The queen though was persistent, "Do not underestimate what my monsters can do. Many cities and people have and now there are monsters who bear their traits of those people, a memento to their arrogance and testimony to what a horde of ogres can do when told to enjoy their victory."

Baraka narrows his harsh yellow eyes at her, **"Is that meant to a be a threat? The rape of Tarkatan women by your hordes? Because if so, we do not take threats lightly and we return three times what we receive. So think carefully." **

This makes the room grow much more quiet as the two leaders sized the other up before the queen leaned back to relax.

"I am thinking carefully Chief. And I've also considered how to spare your tribe the wrath of some who would take action into their own hands. What say your tribe were to join me? Think of what could be accomplished, with your people's support this war will be over." She says finally revealing why she summoned him, not that Baraka was surprised in the slightest.

"**You are asking us to join you? Right after you just threatened my people? You really must think we are desperate if you think I'm going take an offer like that." **He says crossing his arms at the Queen.

Olga narrowed her eyes, "And just what is it that you want?"

"**To be left alone." **He replies with a simple tone.

"That can no longer happen, you've already spilled blood, and now must be answered." Olga said sternly, almost demandingly.

"**Tarkata is done waging war for others, we've served emperors who used our people for fodder. We will not be guilted into fighting for you, we defended our people and honor. We owe you nothing." **

Olga looked boarder line furious at that remark. "Nothing? The only reason you are alive is because I did not send my monster army, or worse for you my elven. You did more than pay back your pound of flesh, you continue to kill my soldiers. And if nothing is done, that will be declared an act of war against the north. So then Chief, what are you prepared to do?"

Baraka growls at her tone and cracks his knuckles under the strain of his clenched hands. **"War? If you wish for war then know you will loose twenty for every one you kill. And know that every Tarkatan you do kill will die with a belly full of elf and orc flesh. We will not be slaves again!"**

"How dare you!" Chloe shouts from her place next to Olga.

She takes a few bold steps forward towards the war-chief and daringly points at him, "You were invited graciously by the Queen, she was ready to forgive you of all your crimes, and you spit at her with threats and accuse her of trying to enslave you! You should be grateful that she hasn't ordered your entire tribe wiped from the world! She even offered you a place in her armies, the future victors of this war!" She screams with absolute venom in her words.

Baraka finally having enough lunges at her faster than she could or the queen could react with blades drawn and placed them crossed at her throat. Ready to send her head flying.

"**You know nothing of war, whelp. And know nothing of Tarkata. I've seen and fought in centuries worth of war, everyone just as bloody and brutal, and I loved every single moment. All Tarkatans thirst for death, hunger for war, live for combat. Do you think mere threats scare us? I've seen Emperors rise and fall, I've seen the dead rise to slaughter the living, and I've seen gods fall. Tarkata only wishes to be left alone, but if pushed….."**

He then ever so slightly moves his blades drawing blood but not cutting too deep, all while staring at the Queen who was now standing and pointing her staff at him with the Ruby glowing brightly. With a clear expression of both anger and worry on her face.

"…**.we will gladly kill you and rend the flesh from your bones."** He finishes with a low growl at Chloe.

"**And now we will leave. There is no longer a reason to talk, and now it seems we both have to prepare for war. We will be seeing you Queen of the North." **He says before motioning his own soldiers who had been in a stand off with the elven guards everyone with blades drawn.

The other Tarkatans slowly walked back through the portal that had been open the whole time. And when the last had made it through Baraka removed one of his blades from Chloe's throat. He then grabbed ahold of Chloe and walked backwards to the portal, just in case Olga tried to close it on him.

And when his back was to the portal he quickly removed his other blade and gave the dark elf a swift but hard kick to the center of her back and went through.

Olga barley has time to catch her ward as she sailed through the air, but she was able to stop her from hitting the stone floor.

She then quickly closed the portal and looked over the younger elf.

"Are you alright?" She asks concerned.

Chloe nods but can feel the bruise that will no doubt form on her back.

Olga then turns to her guards with a look of fury on her face, "Give these orders to every commander elven and monster. If they so much as smell those savage cretans I want them to exterminate them. I want them to bring me proof of every Tarkatan they kill, I want their heads or their blades at my feet. I want Baraka on his knees begging before I slaughter the rest of his miserable tribe! Start by have some of the horde go south, they will try to cross into human territory I'm sure of it."

The guard gives a crisp salute before running off leaving Olga to tend to Chloe.

The younger woman coughs a bit before trying to stand, "I'm sorry my queen. I let my anger get the better of me."

Olga only sighed, "It wouldn't have made a difference whether you spoke up or not. I have a feeling that it would've gone the same regardless. But now we must be ready, it seems our war just became a bit more complicated."

**Tarkatan Camp**

As soon as Baraka stepped back into his camp he watched as the portal immediately closed and spit at the ground where it once was.

He then looks to the blood on his arm blades and he gives one a quick smell and tastes some of the blood that had been left against the edge.

'_**Bitter.' **_He thinks before spitting again.

He sees two of his veteran warriors walk up to him with the obvious question written all over their faces.

"**The Queen wishes for war, I will not let Tarkata serve another tyrant. Prepare the camp to move, will head south." **He says with a commanding voice before waking off to help the camp collapse.

'_**They want War, I will give them only a slaughter. I will place their heads on my private wall.' **_

He then paused for a moment when a realization came to his head, there was a familiar scent in his nose.

The smell of human.

**And Done!**

**Ok so not the Scorpion follow up but I though Baraka needed one but it's back to the ninja after this. **

**Anyway if you kindly would please Read and Review as it always helps.**

**Stay Cool**


	8. Master and Novice

I do not own Mortal Kombat or Kuroinu

"Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Dark Character Speech"**

'_**Dark Character Thoughts'**_

**Chapter 7: Master and Novice **

In a peaceful hidden temple, on an open clearing, surrounded by dozens of onlookers two grandmaster level ninja were in a duel for control of the lives of all those that both watched them and lived there. They fought for the right to rule the clan of Serpents.

One was the clan's own grandmaster, she being a high elf that had lead them for almost two centuries. And one who wouldn't give up her title without a fight to remember.

And the other was an invader in the eyes of many who watched, a forefinger who came uninvited and unexpectedly too only to simply challenge their master. But this was a man that everyone knew was of grandmaster quality. The way he moved, his posture when he stood, even the shine of his blade told them a great deal of what this man was. And yet there was something else, something that edged at the back of their minds. This man felt unnatural, and that alone seemed to worry some of the older clan members who watched the duel.

It was as if he wasn't human, a monster wearing a man's skin.

The sounds of metal striking metal and cutting through air could be heard by all that stood and watched the fight closely.

After the initial charge Scorpion brought out his sword partially to block the quick draw strike from the elven grandmaster. And while it was a flawless block it did not slow down her attack momentum that much, as she was able to plant her foot and lash out with a spear hand that would've taken out one of his eyes had he not ducked.

Scorpion now lower to the ground puts a hand underneath him and spun his legs in a wide sweep aiming to take out his opponent's footing.

The elf jumps to avoid him, but while she was in the air he uses his superhuman strength to push himself up into a upward kick that slammed into her chest, which was then flowed by a mid air back kick to the same area.

She hits the ground hard but is up in a moment and quickly sucks in a bit of air to try and recover. Though she now knew she had to be even more careful than she first thought, the man before her kicked harder than a centaur.

From there the two circled one another, each now had their blade fully unsheathed as Scorpion had his raised into a high guard, while the elf had hers in a mid.

It was silent for a few more tense moments as the only sounds present were the shuffling of cloth and loose gravel or grass.

Then by some unspoken signal the two charged and clashed with Scorpion being the aggressor and the elf on guard. She tried to hold his blade up with her guard, but she quickly reminded that he was indeed much stronger than her.

So to counter this she side steps and lets his blade glide over hers and end up to her side. She uses this change to launch and elbow strike to his ribs, but to her annoyance the undead ninja brings his own arm up to catch her attack.

He held it there for a few tense moments before he swung out his leg trying to catch the elf with a hook kick. But she was able to get back using some flexibility to bend at the waist and get away.

"My oh my, not afraid to hit a woman? Most men think of me as a weakling if my blade doesn't catch them. But with you I have to say this is a welcome surprise." She says with an almost sultry look one her lips as she couldn't help but glance at the shinobi's arms.

Scorpion if he saw the stare didn't seem to care as he slowly sheathed his sword and took up a hapkido stance, **"Any warrior is dangerous if underestimated. And no one reaches the level of grandmaster without the skill to match. Now, are you ready to surrender?" **

The elf smirks at him and looks him over for weaknesses in his form, "You're asking a cornered snake to surrender? You should know that we are most dangerous, and aggressive when cornered."

Scorpion tightens his hand into a fist, tight enough for the knuckles to crack, **"Then I will subdue the snake."**

Hearing the firm confidence in his voice and seeing it in his stance brought out an even larger grin for the elf as she too put away her blade and took up a fighting stance. "Whenever you're ready dear."

Scorpion rushes forward with a flying punch straight down aimed to her face and isn't bothered when she side steps and redirected it, he simply uses his downward momentum to transition to a spinning hook kick. To which he landed perfectly even if it was guarded, not that it matter as he used his strength advantage to toss her much lighter frame away from him.

Scorpion then rushes her again, opening with a strike aiming to crush her throat, followed by a low kick to her shin, and finally raising that same leg higher trying to land a blow to her face.

The elf avoids the the first strike by maneuvering her head to the side and avoids the kick combo by lifting her leg and bouncing of the other to gain a bit of distance. She quickly bounces back with her own kick aimed at his chest, but it was blocked by the shinobi's forearms. The elf smirks though as she uses her foots position on his arms as a base to launch herself upward and brings her other leg around to firmly plant it onto Scorpion's head.

Though that smirk disappears when the specter spins out of the kick and counters landing a crushing blow with a solid elbow to the woman's sternum.

She skids back and wipes her mouth of a bit of drool that had been knocked loose, "My oh my those are some rough and skilled hands. Please show me more."

She comes in again and the two trade punches, knife hands, and occasional kick before the woman attempts to lock one of his arms. She maneuvers behind him and goes to pin, but the ninja flips himself over and lands a solid blow to the elf's chin, which was then followed up by a another blow to her sternum as he landed and planted a back kick to he same area.

She glares at him as she felt her rib cage rattle from the last blow. She spits a small bundle and snot and blood to the side before slowly removing her blade again. Scorpion narrows his undead white eyes and does the same, each blade shining in the light of the cavern.

They stare for a brief moment before the elf jumps at him with a thrust attack, Scorpion goes to the side and slashes at her legs but the other grandmaster was able to curl up and flip forward over the slash. Scorpion again goes for the attack and brings his blades down onto her shoulder, she blocks but is forced to take a brutal punch to the gut before he slid his blade away and jabbed her with the handle of his blade on the back of her head.

She stumbles and feels a slight bit of blood drain down the back of her neck, "It would seem as if your sword play is even more impressive than your hand to hand. Perhaps this is telling sign of my defeat."

Scorpion nods, **"Do you yield?"**

The elf brings her pipe up to her mouth and strikes it with a match, she stares him dead in the eye as she take a long and deep breath of the tobacco. She lets out a sweet smelling smoke and as the smoke itself seemed to grow thicker she swings her blade around to a reverse grip.

"Not quite. I've still got a trick or two left to play." She says with a tone of challenge as the smoke grows in size.

Scorpion's eyes dart about as the smoke draws near before landing back onto her form, **"If it's trickery you want to use, then go ahead," **He slowly draws his second blade, **"just know that I will never be deceived."**

He then charges into the smoke and hears the clang of his blade meeting hers, so he goes for a swipe of his tanto aiming where he knows her neck will be.

But all he felt was the smoke as he slashed through as if she wasn't there.

Years of instinct and experience told him to quickly raise his guard to the side. He sees a plume or smoke, then the sound of the blades clashing.

"**So do you move in the smoke, or you become the smoke? It does not matter which I have fought foes like you before." **He says before twisting his feet and hips throwing both feet in rapid succession.

But both missed their mark as the elf in the smoke simply either dodged or allowed them to pass through. "Well it seems as if the knowledge of how to fight a foe like me has escaped your memory."

He hears a small giggle at the joke and launches his kunai and chain to his back and quickly whips his wrist to launch the chain and knife in a semi circle. He hears a gasp of surprise in the smoke and smirks behind his mask as he leaps forward.

His leap is met with the site of a surprised elf as she tried to bring her blade up in time to stop his overhead slash, but she was a tad too slow which resulted in her receiving a nasty cut onto her forearm and a smaller one on her side as his second blade came back around.

She moves to the side in the smoke and falls back to see that thankfully the wounds aren't that deep.

"I must say for someone to actually strike me inside my smoke is impressive. Most don't even know where there own hands are much less mine." She says taking another puff of her pipe.

She then feels a blade resting on her shoulder and she goes rigid, **"You talk far too much. It gives away more than you think." **

She on the other hand smirks at him, "I suppose I can be a chatty at times, but I always try to keep my guard up."

She then disappears in a burst of smoke quickly ducking down to avoid Scorpion's strike.

She comes at him from below and instead of of the usual sword strike she instead comes up with a flying knee aiming to knock some of the specter's teeth out.

Scorpion blocks the knee with his elbow but before he could react the elf exhaled and blew a large cloud of black smoke into his face and kicked off his chest.

He goes to pursue but a smell makes him pause, _**'Gunpowder?' **_

He looks up as the all of the surrounding smoke that had once been white quickly turned pitch black. He then spies the elf just outside the smoke looking back at him with a smirk, "Forgive me, but I don't feel like seeing how skilled you are with that chain of yours. I was already barely holding up against two blades, three seemed a bit unfair. So I hope, from one ninja to another, that a bit of improvisation is alright. It's been a **blast **to fight like this after so long, shows me just how out of practice I am."

She then pulls a match from her side and strikes it with her thumb, lighting the explosive smoke that had been surrounding the shinobi into a huge blazing fireball that rocked the clearing and sent all the spectators into cover.

And when the last bit of ash cleared they saw only dust remaining.

"She did it, grandmaster is the victor!" One Serpent clansman calls out, starting a chain of yells making the elf smirk at them as she brought her pipe back out for a victory smoke.

She winces though as the fight seemed to be catching up to her, _'I really do need to train again. I almost lost to him multiple times. Thank the gods for that last attack.'_

But something bothered her about the explosion, there was no yell of pain and there was no silhouette in the flash. She knew that she put a lot of power into that last one, but even then explosions left corpses or at least a trace. Well pieces of them but still.

That's when she felt it. Heat, skin searing blistering heat from behind her.

She and others turned to see something that should've gone down as a nightmare.

Crawling out of a hole in the ground, that looked more like a portal to hell itself, was a flaming skeletal figure that glowed bright orange and what looked like muscles and skin made of pure hellfire.

It then blitzed her and held the woman by the throat, but while she felt heat she didn't not feel burnt.

The flaming figure said nothing at first but a small laugh came through in a very familiar, but slightly deeper and more ominous tone, **"That last attack was very clever. Had I been anyone else the victory would be yours, but here I am. So now what will you do? If you move to strike me my hand will ignite with a flame so hot that not even your bones will be visible long enough to scream. And your clan will watch as you become nothing but a pile of ash, and scatter in the wind. So then grandmaster, do you yield?" **

The flaming skeleton knew it had won, and so did she. It had figured her out, it had outclassed her in speed and technique, and now it had her at its complete mercy.

There was nothing more she could do, "I yield."

The specter then let's her go and quickly gains flesh and clothes back to reveal a completely unharmed Scorpion.

**"And since the victory is mine, your fate is now mine to decide as well. And your fate is to join, you fought well among the best I've faced in sometime. So then will you join me?" **He asks her honestly.

She only nods massaging her throat.

"**Then I welcome you to the Shirai Ryu. So then what is your name, clansman?" **He asks with a surprisingly softer tone.

The elf though stood silent, "Just how will this clan be run?"

He looked around to all the other members watching and waiting, and he could tell that they were worried or even scared. And his little display was not showing the best light for the future of his clan.

He takes the kunai from his sleeve and holds it out for all to see, **"The Shirai Ryu stands for those who cannot stand on their own. We are the burning blades of vengeance that cut away all those who stand against us, our allies, and the realm. Through bonds of fire and blood." **

He then looks to the elf who still held a silent gaze, **"So I ask again what is your name, clansman?"**

The elf didn't move but this time did answer, "My name is Fumée, but you'll have to forgive me if I don't seem excited about this."

Scorpion nods, **"I understand, truly I do. But I promise with the Shirai Ryu you will lead your people to prosperity. I do not wish for conquest, but I do need allies and subordinates to keep this realm safe." **

He then helps the elven woman to a place where she could peacefully sit and smoke her pipe, **"You will continue to lead this place, I do not wish to see unnecessary change for those under me. What you've done works, I do not wish to change that." **

The elf glances before exhaling deeply, "So what then? You serve the Alliance, but now we serve you? We already served under Kaguya, what is gained from us serving you. Just seems like unnecessary steps."

The specter nods, **"That may be true, but rulers change while this clan will not. I'm sure you could tell but I am not human. I was at one point, but that was a long time ago. So now I sit here cursed with unlife seeking to fulfill promises made to better the world in any way I can. Besides you are much older than you appear as well, and how many Maidens have you seen rule? Rulers come and go."**

The elf smirks, "I suppose my clan can follow something like that, but we will see how or even if you can hold to your word. But I suppose I must ask, what will you do now?"

Scorpion shrugs,** "I will go to the other two clans. And offer them the same I've offered you."**

The elf coughs at the response, "So soon? You're not even going to rest here? Wait fine, go find the other two if you want. I can recommend you start with the Owl clan, they're the smallest of the three clans. But they always were more of a quality over quantity. And the grandmaster is said to be older than all the cites of the alliance, they say he was alive during the life of the original goddess. Some say he even saw the war that roared in the heavens. If I were to guess he'd be close to four thousand years old by now. Even for beings like the elves or monsters that's a ridiculous age."

Scorpion nods to her, **"With age comes wisdom, but also stubbornness. Nonetheless I will seek him out."**

He then stands and begins walking back to the entrance to the cave.

"So that's it then? You come, you fight, you leave? Just take control and then let us do whatever we want? I'm not too sure what your game is, but I am sure that's not how you're supposed to play." The elf says turning towards him and looking at his retreating form.

The specter pauses in his walk, **"I play no games here, after my business with the Owl and Hornet clans I will return. Then the Shirai Ryu will grow, and soon any creature of the dark will fear our blades. Until then I ask that you wait for my return, from there our work can begin."**

He then blends into one of the many shadows and seemingly disappears leaving the elf and her clan.

**Days Later**

It had taken a significantly longer amount of time to track down the Owl clan when compared to the Serpent as he actually had a location to go off of. But now he found himself facing a lone house on the side of a mountain overlooking a great forest.

He walks up to the door of the home and softly knocks.

It was silent for a few moments before he hears the shifting of air and turns to see a lone ninja rising from a crouch.

He says nothing as the ninja approaches him slowly and waits for the newcomer to make a move. If he tried to attack, Scorpion knew he could react in time.

The two stared for a moment allowing Scorpion to look the ninja over and see the small slit of skin that was showing around his eyes. And while he couldn't see much, he saw that this was a very young and inexperienced shinobi. He could also see that this one was a male, but whether it was a elf or human remains to be seen.

"**I seek your grandmaster." **He says bluntly making the ninja tense at the undead tone in his voice.

The shinobi stares for a moment then slowly nods and goes to open the door to the home.

The entire time Scorpion watched with a close eye, just in case a surprise attack awaited him inside the home.

He peered inside and saw nothing but dark as the other ninja slowly walked in ahead of him. He then followed at the same slow pace and saw a corner of the room that had a small collection of lit candles and a small hunched figure leaning against a single table.

"Master, a stranger has come to speak with you." The ninja says in a higher pitched but still masculine tone of voice. He then sees a small decrepit hand wave off the young ninja and he began to light more candles around the home.

These candles then allowed Scorpion to see his host in a much clearer view.

The figure was revealed to be an old, small, and pale skinned elf. His face and hands were covered in wrinkles from his age, his once pointed and perky ears now droop low but still remain the points, any hair he might've had had long since fallen off, and his old tired green eyes spoke volumes to Scorpion. His clothing was a large brown robe with what looked to be a grey undershirt and matching trousers underneath.

Scorpion then locks his eyes onto the much older looking elf at the table, **"Are you the master of the Owl clan?" **

The old master nods, "Yes, I suppose if you could even call two lonesome men in the middle of nowhere a clan?"

Scorpion sits down at the table skeptical but less likely to spring on the host. **"So the once mighty Owl clan is no more than two hermits? How disappointing."**

The old elf slowly nods, "Yes it is. Once there were many Owls roaming these lands, once there were so many eyes and ears looming over Eostia. But time as I'm sure you know is a cruel thing, we began to become fewer and fewer as the generations went on."

He finishes with a tired voice that Scorpion felt a portion of himself in. But while he was forced to watch his clan end in a single day, this one was cursed to see it wither and die over the years.

"**And just how many generations have you seen?" **The undead asks.

The old elf pauses before sighing, "I honestly lost count, it truly has been that long. I remember a time long ago before this war of the goddess in the South against the Queen in the North. A time where all people only fought against the monsters. A time where we fought against the likes of your kind." He finishes with a venomous tone is his voice towards the specter.

"**My kind? You've faced the undead?" **He asks clearly surprised.

The elf nods, "Once when I was much, much younger. Everyone is so absorbed in this war now that they forget history. This isn't the first war to last a millennium, and I doubt it'll be the last. I know the forces of hell when I see them, and you reek of fire and rot."

Scorpion clenched his fists and thought about the forces of the Netherworld back in Earthrealm. Of all the merciless and mindless monsters the were unfortunate souls brought back by Shinnok and Quan Chi's vile magic. He'd killed more than his fair share during the final assault Kronika after all, and at once has been one of their generals.

"**I may be undead, but my soul rejects my creator. So do not group me with those mindless creatures of the nether. I am now a spirit of fire and vengeance, and I have come to burn away all those who defile the innocent." **The anger in his voice lit a literal fire in his eyes as the old man raised his hand in surrender and recognition.

"I see, then please forgive me spirit. People these days call creatures like orcs or trolls demons, when they have no idea what true demons look like, or what they can truly do. I've seen armies, cities, and entire cultures disappear in a day, it truly leaves me with horrid memories. It's the main reason this clan was founded, so many centuries ago. Myself and a few survivors of the war founded the Owl as a way to watch silently, and warn them whole Eostia should another potential demon invasion arise." He explains with an expression that became more and more pained as he went on.

Scorpion says nothing at first but nods in both respect and understanding, **"I know all too well what the forces of the Netherealm can do. I too have seen it and fought against it, I've also seen what their masters are capable of as well. For what it's worth you have my condolences, but now I'm sure you can guess why I am here." **

The elf shakes his head, " If you've come to kill me, know that I can barely stand you will only gain shame in striking me down."

The younger ninja on the other end of the room tenses as his master spoke to the specter. _'Master don't.'_

Scorpion though just shakes his head. **"I haven't come for your life elf. I came to absorb your clan into mine, and add to our strength. It may sound cruel and perhaps it is, but this is so that I can protect Eostia. I've spoken with Kaguya and the Serpent clan, after you it will be the Hornet clan then the Shirai Ryu will be this realm's protectors."**

"You offer to protect the realm, really? And no it's not as cruel as it may seem, I'm only wasting away at this point. But I'm truly sorry but I've nothing to give. No warriors, no resources, not even political favors. I have never dealt with this Kaguya, probably because I'm older than whatever city she hails from. But yes my clan was sworn to her long ago." He says with a bitter smile as he coughs roughly into his hand.

Scorpion though is slightly puzzled, **"Then why does she claim to have dealings with your clan? She and her records tell of all three clans meeting to discuss the war in the North." **

The old elf shook his head, "No true member of the Owl clan has been to her keep I assure you. We haven't fought in quite some time. I've no reason to see my clan be forgotten at the blade or club of some monster."

Scorpion though subtly looks to the other ninja that was leaning against the wall and narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"But I suppose I could give you a blessing then." The elf says trying to be of some value.

Scorpion sighs and stands up, **"If you've nothing to give then I will be on my way. Blessings mean little to me." **

He stands and bows out of courtesy and respect for his wishes and begins walking away when a hand grabs him from behind. So acting on instinct the undead flips whoever was holding onto him over his shoulder and put his kunai to their throat. Before he slits their throat though he sees that it was the younger ninja.

"**It seems as if your one remaining member wishes to die an early death." **He says pressing the edge to the younger ninja's throat.

The old man was just as surprised as Scorpion at this point and was staring wide eyed at the scene before him, "Boy what are you doing?!"

The master shouts in surprise at the sudden action of his student.

"Take me! I wish to fight!" He shouts as the edge touches his throat.

Both older ninja stop and stare as the younger shouted out on reflex when he felt the blade grow close. Scorpion seeing that the boy was no real threat removed his kunai and simply pushed him away.

The younger ninja though turned as fast as he could and got to his hands and knees in front of the specter, "Please grandmaster, I wish to fight against your enemies. To put my training to use rather than waste away waiting to die."

Scorpion looks down at him and critically stares at him, **"You would so easily leave your master? The one who gave you a home, the one who trained you, the one who protects you?" **He asks cautiously, not wanting to take on a clan member who would fly at the first sign of trouble when the fighting and commitment started.

The younger ninja looks to his master who was now staring intently at him. "Forgive me Master I am grateful, but I do not wish to waste away when I can fight." He then looks back to Scorpion, "And the reason Kaguya-sama has the support of the Owl clan is because I've been sneaking away to meet with her and the other clan heads. I've been training here since I was only a boy to fight for Eostia, but I've never once gotten the chance to do any good in this war. I've only been here and to the city to meet with Kaguya-sama. Please grandmaster give me a chance."

The two older ninja look down at the boy and while Scorpion judges him the elf could hardly stand to look at him. True he trained him but at his core he was a pacifist after all he'd seen, to hear this was something he didn't think he could bear for too long. He trained him so he could protect himself and the clan, not run off to an early death.

Scorpion looks him over but says nothing and only looks at the master, **"It's your life, your choice. Just be aware of the consequences you may face." **

And with that he walks out of the house and waits, if the young ninja comes then they will leave together, if not he will leave alone. Makes no difference to him.

He hears hushed voices in the home for a few moments then the door opens to reveal the ninja now unmasked.

He was human, with tanned skin, sharp eyes and a pointed nose with dark brown hair and dark golden eyes. He also wore an expression of relief but also of regret on his face, making it so the undead could easily tell he was not sure of his own decision, but at least proud of himself for making it.-

"The Master has given you his blessing in your cause. And I am here to accompany you." He says plainly with almost no emotion.

The older ninja nods, **"I thought the elf said he had nothing other than his blessing to give?"**

The boy shook his head, "Nothing _he _could give. But this is my choice as a member of the Owl clan, and I choose to follow the path that presents opportunity before me. My master means well but he is too careful, he waits too long. And elf can wait for decades planing an attack, but I cannot so I must choose now. And I choose to fight."

Scorpion nods at the conviction in his voice, he suppose he should've felt bad for the old elf. But he's seen far older and wiser beings who learned the hard way that patience, while a virtue, had limits.

He's waited this long due to what he's seen in his past and his reluctance to fight. Then so be it.

"**Very well then, you will have plenty of chances to fight. But for now there remains the Hornet clan. You've met with the clan head before, what am I to suspect?"** He asks wanting some kind of edge against an unknown opponent.

The boy shakes his head, "I do not know much, but that the Hornet clan is more of a cult than a clan. Their grandmaster is named Shamuhaza, and he is rumored to more of a magician and scientist rather than a shinobi."

Scorpion tenses at the combination of skills, reminded too much of Shang Tsung and even Quan Chi to a certain degree. _**'May they both rot and burn for eternity.' **_

"**Why call them a cult?" **He asks

The boy shook his head and looked slightly disgusted, "They bare the name of Hornets but flinch at every time an insect is killed, they hide it but his guards seem to tense. Shamuhaza where's bandages on his face and they always appear dirty or almost rotten, something a bit unbecoming of a grandmaster in my humble opinion. And I hear them speak to themselves often when waiting for Kaguya-sama, not to each other but themselves as they each hold what looked to be roaches or flies in their hands." He says sounding a bit grossed out at the memories.

"**Very well then do you know of their clan's location?" **He asks wanting to get the meeting over with, though he was beginning to rethink meeting them. Solely because of previous experiences with both insects and scientists.

The younger ninja shakes his head, "No one knows, he rarely appears at meetings and he changes locations often. But I must say grandmaster, Shamuhaza is not…..natural. It's as if part of him isn't human."

Scorpion nods, **"Then his meeting can wait, until we learn more. For now we will return to the Serpent clan. So that we may begin our goal of protecting this kingdom. So then what am I to call you?" **

The shinobi reaches into his outfit and reveals a necklace with a single owl claw, "It is tradition that the deadliest fighter of the clan be given a moniker, to replace their name with duty and give purpose to them. But with only one member other than the master I was given the title and it became my name."

He then bows from the waist and slips his headgear over again.

"I am Talon, and now I am your claws in the night."

**"Come then Talon, we shall meet with Fumée of the Serpent clan. There is contract we must fulfill, a princess that must be protected, and to do that we must find and burn out those who would seek to do her harm. Soon we go to the city of Feoh." **They then disappear in a swirl of fire. Leaving the peaceful home with the elf inside.

**Later**

Though if they'd stayed for a few hours longer they'd have seen the house itself come alive.

Termites, ants, roaches and all other kinds of insects came crawling from the cracks of, underneath, and from all around the house.

The elf did nothing as he merely opened his eyes and stared at three shadows that had appeared in his home.

"And so it is that the roaches crawl into the open." He says watching as one threw a small scroll towards him.

He then took out a pen and dipped it into a small vile of ink. "He did not reveal much but what he did say was very potent information. If this plan for conquest your grandmaster and that mercenary general have come up with is to be a reality then he will be a problem. My skills have rusted greatly in my years, but I still remember the burns of hellfire. I could smell it the moment he appeared, and yes he can appear and disappear at will. He also has dealings with Kaguya so perhaps warn your master, that he may not see my foolish young student at your next meeting."

He then rolls up the scroll and gives it off to one of them, "But most importantly is that he is an undead, and a _very _powerful one at that. Mortal weapons will not damage him permanently, it must be magic."

He then feels their presence disappear and he sighs, _'I've lived long enough to know how to sniff out schemes. But I also know how to survive most of all, of that means my former Talon must perish in order for there to be peace. Then so be it.'_

**And Done **

**Ok so this one took a while to get out been busy with work, training, and learning all the things. I really hope it's up to par I rewrote it twice wanting to see how I could play this out. **

**Originally I wrote it like it was Owl and Wolf from Sekiro but that seemed cheap then I read some comics and read some new Batman and remembered Talon and the Court of Owls. **

**I know it seems like there are a lot of characters but I always thought that the whole WAR element in stories isn't really there yeah there are a few but war is a big thing with a lot of moving parts. **

**Am I making too much of this considering it is a hentai? Probably but Mortal Kombat is anime levels of ridiculous sometimes and it's of course ultra violent and rating system spawningly gory so fuck it. **

**Besides in both people die, not saying who but maybe later on and shit like that. **

**Stay Cool**


End file.
